Birth By Sleep Reloaded
by MangaWitch808
Summary: Follows Aqua, Terra and Ven's lives a few years before, during, and after the events of Birth By Sleep. First Year Arc 1-17; Aqua's Arc 18-22; Ven's Arc 23-38; Fun Stuff Arc 39-46; Hell Week Arc 47 - 101; A New Normal Arc 102- now (Updates whenever...)
1. I Hate Household Chores

**Author's Note: Hey, so, I took a lot of creative liberty with this. This is going to be a very long fanfiction. It starts off as a funny slice-of-life, but then the drama and action picks up in later chapters. Enjoy!**

One calm afternoon, Master Eraqus was sweeping the floor of the palace in which he lived. All of a sudden, he stopped. He looked to his left. He looked to his right. He threw the broom on the floor. With a frown, he asked himself, "Why am I doing this? Yen Sid has a student to do all of his chores. Xehanort does too. I'll get a few students of my own."

He immediately went to his office and opened up his laptop. He logged onto the Keyblade Master's Guild website and posted an opening to accept three students under his wing. Leaning back in his swivel chair, he nodded to himself. "Yes, yes, this is definitely a good idea." Right as he said that, the back legs of the chair rolled too far, and Master Eraqus fell backwards and bonked his head. "Dammit!" he swore. "Stupid chair."

A few days later, five hopeful teenage students showed up at his doorstep. He took each of them inside to the throne room. Upon a stage he paced back and forth, lecturing them. "Hello, chosen young ones. I am Master Eraqus, Guardian of the Land of Departure. My entire life has been devoted to following the path of the keyblade. I am glad to see that you answered that same call. It is a unique and special gift to be able to wield its power. Yet, even fewer still are able to bear the Mark of Mastery. You are standing in the same room that will one day be used to carry out your mastery exam." He paused dramatically. The students were focused on his words.

He continued, "Though five of you answered, only three of you may earn the chance to study under me, a keyblade master. I shall put you through a series of harsh trials to determine which of you is worthy."

One young man raised his hand. He seemed like a pretty dorky kid. He had thick glasses and dark brown hair in the shape of a bowl cut. He wore an orange argyle sweater vest that was tucked into his high-waisted khaki trousers. "Excuse me, um, is the Mark of Mastery a physical mark? Like the one you have on your cheek?"

"No. And that's a dumb question."

"Let me ask a follow up," continued the hopeful student. "So, what's the job market looking like for a keyblade master nowadays? Are we talking six figures?"

Since the Master had always made a living by investing in the stock market and collecting disability checks, he didn't quite know. Therefore, he answered, "Nothing is guaranteed in life, but I can tell you from my own experience that this life is full of adventure, responsibility and fulfilment."

"Final question. Does being a keyblade master look good on a medical school application?"

Eraqus snapped his fingers. "Enough! Be gone!"

"But—"

"Do not let the door hit you on the way out."

So that kid left.

Eraqus told the remaining four candidates, "The rest of you, please introduce yourselves."

The first candidate was a brown-skinned, silver-haired, and red-eyed young man who seemed to be a no-nonsense type. He wore a white tank-top underneath a black leather jacket. His pants were black, his shoes were black, and he wore red fingerless gloves. "I'm Jerome of the house of Skyview," he answered. "I have sixteen years of age. I come from a war-torn world called Ivalice. I journeyed here to become a keyblade master and fulfill my destiny."

Next was a beautiful, blue-haired, blue-eyed, fair-skinned girl. She wore thigh-high boots, short black volleyball shorts, and a midriff navy-blue, tube top shirt. She seemed to radiate an aura of confidence and grace. "I'm Aqua. I'm fifteen. I believe that there is a greater purpose to my life, so I want to use the keyblade to do good in the worlds."

But Master wasn't paying attention to her words. "Hot damn, Aqua," Master blurted out. Luckily, Eraqus wasn't the only one who said that. Standing beside Aqua was a dude in a tight black shirt and grey cargo pants. His brown, spikey hair was held back in a ponytail. He was covering his gaping mouth and raising his eyebrows as he ogled her. "Hot damn, Aqua!" he had exclaimed at the same time.

Aqua took a step back, and rolled her eyes at the guy beside her. "Do you like what you see, creep?" she asked sarcastically.

"Like it? Whoa, girl, take me to McRonalds cuz ba-duh-duh-duh-duh, I'm loving it."

She burst into laughter so hard that she doubled over and grabbed her belly. "Wow, that was the worst pick up line I have ever heard in my life!"

Master, feeling very, very, very ashamed that he himself had initially reacted in the same way, and also very, very, very relieved that she hadn't noticed, said, "Focus, you two."

The young man, blushing, faced Master and bowed his head. "Sorry about that. My name is Terra Smith. I come from Traverse Town. I'm seventeen. My dream is to become a keyblade master."

Master Eraqus rolled his eyes. Finally, he turned to the last potential student. This guy was wearing a varsity football jacket and blue jeans. His hair was spiky and blonde. His eyes were light blue. And he was chewing bubblegum. "I'm Notus." He blew a bubble and popped it. "Notus Johnson. Seventeen years old. I'm from Twilight Town. I want to become a keyblade master so that I can travel throughout the worlds and search for my little brother." Notus smiled. "I know he's out there somewhere. His light is faint but it calls to me."

Master nodded. "All very noble reasons. Welcome, all of you, to the Land of Departure." He paced back and forth. "The keyblade is a powerful weapon. There are many styles to fighting with it. Yet the basics remain the same. Wielding a keyblade is very similar to wielding a broom. Starting from this building, and moving toward the student bedrooms and then toward my office, show me your skills with a broom. I want the area spotless. The brooms are over by the back wall. I shall be monitoring your progress."

The students looked at each other, confused. "This is a test!" Master shouted. So the students raced to get their brooms. With lightning speed, they swept the entire palace clean. Eraqus clapped his hands. "Interesting. It seems that all of you are capable of working together as a team. But, being a keyblade master also involves individual discipline and the ability to follow instructions. Accordingly, I will give each of you a task to complete. Right now you are in the Palace. This will be your home if you pass my tests. Further down the mountain is a busy town, filled with many people who reside in the light. The light that we keyblade wielders aim to protect. First of all, I have a task for you, Terra."

Terra stood at attention. "Yes Master!"

Master handed a list to him. "Go to the store and pick up those items on the list. Jerome, I'll need you to take this paper work to city hall." Master handed Jerome a binder filled with papers. "Aqua, go retrieve a package for me at the post office. And Notus, you'll need to declutter my office."

Jerome raised an eyebrow. "Um, wait, why are we doing chores?"

The Master began to walk away, saying, "Patience young one. Your questions will be answered. Now, each of you, off to your tasks. Notus, follow me." So Notus followed Master. Jerome turned to Terra and Aqua, asking, "Is this guy legitimate?"

Aqua replied, "I looked him up. He's definitely certified by the board—although his certification is set to expire next month." She took the paperwork from Jerome. "I bet these papers are the renewal forms." Glancing through the first few pages, she nodded. "Yup. I thought so. Hahaha."

But Jerome didn't find it quite so funny. "So he _is_ making us do chores?"

Terra mumbled, "And she's smart too. Damn, she's got the whole package."

Aqua playfully nudged Terra with her elbow. "Easy there, lover boy. Keep your thoughts to yourself." To Jerome, she concluded, "This guy's definitely the real deal. So cheer up. Let's get these simple little tasks done." With that, she left to find the post office. Jerome sighed. Terra covered his face with his hands while saying, "Wow, this girl is amazing."

Jerome rolled his eyes and mumbled, "Wow, this idiot isn't serious," as he left to do his chore.


	2. I Aspire to be Archwizard

Now, you may think that Master Eraqus is wrong to seek students solely for the sake of doing his chores, but actually, his heart is in the right place. Master Eraqus is honestly willing to teach the ways of the keyblade to these bright-eyed students for free (well, in exchange for the household labor). For comparison, let's consider what his colleagues were doing to their pupils.

Yen Sid had been preparing to conduct an ancient magic ritual to increase his magical prowess, so that he could challenge the current Archwizard to a battle to the death. The winner of that battle would claim the title of Archwizard of Magic. It was a title full of prestige. On top of being editor in chief of Wizard Weekly Magazine, the Archwizard had access to the ancient catacombs that possessed the scrolls of the secrets of magic. Plus, the Archwizard got the best parking spots at sorcery conventions.

For these reasons, Yen Sid was preparing to win or die. The ritual he was to perform tonight required him to focus on the moon, and siphon its light. In order to do this, he needed to form a psychic link with it. He had spent a year praying to the moon. Tonight was the final night, the night of power transfer. Any slight disturbance in concentration would make the ritual fail, and he couldn't attempt it again for another ten years.

As per tradition, Yen Sid poured sacred oil on his head, sat in an alchemist circle that he had drawn with pixie dust and moonstones, and drank a bottle of Pokémon tears. Right before as mumbled the words to begin the process, there was a knock on his door.

"Um, Master?" said the stupid apprentice he had taken under his wing about a year ago.

"I thought I told you not to bother me tonight, Mickey," replied Yen Sid.

Mickey opened the door and walked in. "U-u-um, Master, I, um, so I was drawing water from the well, a-a-and, well, I needed help so I tried the thing with the brooms…"

"What!? Again?"

"Yeah. They're flooding the lair. And I was wondering, how is drawing water from a well supposed to help me with wizard training anyway? I feel like I've been doing nothing but chores and odd jobs around here. When do I start learning magic?"

Mickey's suspicion was right, as Yen Sid never intended to teach the mouse magic. He simply wanted a housekeeper to cook and clean while he undertook the year-long ritual. Yen Sid was planning to dump the mouse tomorrow after he attained the power of the moon. Accordingly, Yen Sid said, "We shall talk about that tomorrow, Mickey. I have an important ritual to complete."

"Um, okay, but um, the flooding is going to rise so…"

"You know what, Mickey, why don't you go fix the situation yourself? I trust you." Of course this was a lie. Yen Sid needed to get rid of the mouse and finish the ritual before the effects of the Pokémon tears ran out.

"Master, maybe I'm not cut out to be a wizard. I don't think I'm good at this."

Yen Sid groaned. "Mickey, I have urgent matters to attend to! Be gone!"

Dejected, Mickey turned to leave out of the door. Unfortunately, the water had risen into Yen Sid's study. It flooded the room, swept the sorcerer and his apprentice off of their feet, and washed away the alchemist circle.

With a mighty wave of his hands, Yen Sid cleared out the water, while shouting, "Mickey you stupid, useless rodent!" He yanked Mickey by the collar of his robes and shouted at him, "Can't you do even the simplest of tasks?"

From the open window in his study, Yen Sid saw that the night sky was suddenly flooded with the brilliance of the moon. Telepathically, he heard her say, "Yen Sid, Master of Magic, seeker of the title of Archwizard. Is this how you treat your student? The one who admires you? Endeavors to be like you?"

Turning around, Yen Sid shouted to the moon, "No, no, do not think that I am a cruel master! I am only harsh on this mouse in order to train him! I adore my student! He means the world to me!"

But the moon was not listening to any of that nonsense. "Lies! I cannot lend my power to a man with darkness in his heart. Perhaps if you learn to release your darkness, I shall hear your plea again. Farewell." And with that, the moon's brightness returned to normal.

Mickey, of course, wasn't able to hear the moon. And upon hearing his master's sudden outburst, he was a bit shaken, but nonetheless encouraged, by those words. "Gee, thanks Master. Haha. By the way," he held up his hand, and a key-shaped blade appeared in it, "this thing showed up in my hand the other day. Do you know what it is?"

Yen Sid's eyes widened. "Is that a keyblade? Did the keyblade choose you? Why?"

"Haha, I don't know. That's why I'm asking you." Mickey smiled. Yen Sid sighed.


	3. I Shall Create a Chi-Blade

Xehanort paced back and forth, watching his young, keyblade-wielding student practice his confirmed combos on the trees in the forest in which they were training. "Ventus!" shouted Xehanort, "Give in to the darkness in your heart! Give in to it!"

Ventus, panting heavily, fell to his knees. "Master, I can't go on." He fell face down.

"Ventus! Useless! Get up!" shouted Xehanort. But Ven was knocked out. Xehanort shook his head. "Pathetic. Unbearably pathetic." Nonetheless, Xehanort picked up his student and carried him, piggy-back style, inside the lair, to a bedroom to rest. Afterwards, Xehanort prepared dinner for the both of them. Neither student or master had eaten or slept during their three-day training exercise in the woods behind their hidden abode. This non-stop, intense training was merely a small step in Xehanort's grand plan to obtain the chi-blade, and unlock Kingdom Hearts.

So far, the plan was unfolding smoothly, because Ven always tried his best to appease his master. Even during the harshest of training, he never complained. In fact, the boy respected Xehanort as if the latter was his father.

Well, technically Master Xehanort was the boy's "father". Xehanort knew that his plan to form the chi-blade would most likely (a 75 percent chance) kill the vessel. Accordingly, he needed to find a disposable person to use. So he had sought out and adopted the most wretched little boy that he could find. "Yes, yes, this one shall do," Xehanort had said back then.

Although the Master's intentions were evil, Xehanort paid a lot of attention to Ven. They spent each day training, chatting, and doing chores. The 11-year old Ventus saw his master as a stern father figure who only wanted the best for him.

Poor kid didn't know how mistaken he was.

Eventually, when Ven awoke from his slumber, his entire body felt like it was weighed down by chains. Even lifting his head caused so much pain. It felt like someone had stabbed each and every muscle in his body with a white hot needle. He found the strength to stand up, though.

After a warm shower, Ventus went to the kitchen to see that Xehanort had laid out dinner for him. Chicken noodle soup. Ven ate alone, because Master had already finished eating. After dinner, Ven cleaned up and went upstairs to Xehanort's private study. He knocked on the door. "Master?"

"Come in, Ventus," replied Xehanort.

Ventus entered the study. Xehanort, an avid writer, was busy writing something in one of his many journals. Ven asked, "What are you writing?"

"None of your business, boy."

"Oh. I see. Well, um, thanks for dinner."

"Of course. We shall wake up bright and early tomorrow to continue your training."

"Thanks Master," replied Ven. He left.


	4. Errands for Master

So now that we know that Yen Sid honestly didn't give a rat's ass about his student, and Xehanort is planning to probably kill his, we can return to the slightly dishonest, but comparatively much better Master Eraqus. It was the same day. Eraqus was sitting outside, sipping lemonade and reading Keyblade Weekly Magazine. Because he hadn't ever trained a student before, he was behind on the latest trends in Keyblading. "Oh, melding commands? Interesting." Eraqus realized that he had quite a lot to learn…

Meanwhile, Notus was cleaning out Master Eraqus's office. There were a lot of old boxes stacked up everywhere. Books and balled-up paper littered the floor. Cobwebs hung in the corners. Everything was dusty. Notus was coughing as he dusted the bookshelves.

Jerome stood second in line at the city hall. The guy who was first was arguing about the re-zoning of a piece of land near his neighborhood. The guy was very angry. Like, very, very angry. His nostrils were flaring and the veins in his forehead were tense against his skin. He was shouting, "I don't get it! I'm a citizen here! I pay my taxes! I deserve to make some decisions around here! You can't let 'em build a potion factory next to my home! Tell them to move it!"

The poor secretary lady was trying to calm him down. "Listen, sir, if you have a complaint, you need to file it with the board of commissioners—"

"NO! I'm not moving from this spot until they move the damn potion factory! You hear me?"

Jerome sighed.

Aqua picked up Master Eraqus's package from the post office with no problem. And for some reason, Terra had followed her. While walking outside, she said, "I wonder what it is," and began to open it.

Terra spoke up, "Um… you shouldn't open other people's packages Aqua."

"Then he shouldn't have told me to pick it up." Inside the package was a new pair of nice shoes. Like, really, really nice shoes. They were white, trimmed in silver and gold, and decorated with the design of a kingdom key. Aqua exclaimed, "Whoa! These are Nike Keys! These cost 17300 munny each!"

Terra repeated, "Each?"

"Yeah! Per shoe!"

"Why would anyone buy a single shoe?"

Terra watched in surprise as Aqua removed her boots, and tried on Master Eraqus's shoes. Smiling, she asked him, "How do I look?"

"Like a thief."

"I'll put them back. He'll never know." She kicked up her leg to admire the shoes. "Master has small feet." She started walking. "Terra, aren't you supposed to go grocery shopping? Let's go together."

So they went shopping. Master had enclosed some money into the shopping list. While Terra grabbed the foodstuff that Master had requested, Aqua looked at some other things. "Terra, they have sea salt ice cream." She tossed ten individually wrapped bars into the shopping cart.

"Um, that's not on the list Aqua."

"Forget about the list." She opened up one of the packets of ice cream and started eating it.

"Um, you can't eat that in the store, Aqua."

She pointed the ice cream at his face. "Who's going to stop me?"

Terra blushed. Apparently, not him.

After grabbing all the things on the list, the two went to the checkout line. The cashier was one of the friendly types that talks about the purchases while ringing them up. She said, "Someone likes ice cream."

"Yup," Terra politely said.

"Organic milk? That's cool. What's the difference between this and normal milk?"

"No clue."

"Lots of pasta. You two must love pasta."

Aqua, with a fake smile, intervened. "Hey, can you like, shut up?"

That honestly hurt the cashier's feelings. Like, really, really hurt. She quietly finished ringing up their goods. Leaving the store, Terra watched as Aqua ate another ice cream bar. Aqua was the type that ate ice cream by biting a chunk off and letting it melt in her mouth. "Yum," she said. "My mom would be freaking out if she saw me eating this much." Turning to Terra, she said, "So, what brings you here? To be a keyblade master?"

Terra replied, "It's always been my dream."

"Really? Why?"

"My dad trained to be a keyblade master, but gave it all up to have a family. When I was little, he told me all about it, and what it means to earn the Mark of Mastery. Since then, I've dreamt about becoming 'Master Terra'. I can imagine the adventure of exploring the various worlds, protecting the light, and being a hero. I know that's what my heart wants."

"So your dad is okay with you becoming a student of the keyblade arts?"

Terra nodded. "Yeah. He was really proud of me."

Aqua started eating her third pack of ice cream. "I wish my mom was like that." She brushed her bangs away from her face. "She doesn't want me to be a keyblade master. So we kept arguing. And I told her that I'm going to do what I want. So here I am."

Terra winced. "Did you run away from home?"

"Depends on your definition of running away." She put the rest of the ice cream in her mouth.

"Does your mother know where you are?"

Aqua shrugged. "I dunno. And I don't care."

"Are you sure that you don't care?" Terra interrogated.

Aqua rolled her eyes. "Come on, Terra, I thought you were cool." By now, the two of them had returned to the courtyard, in front of the stairs that led up to Master Eraqus's palace. "Oh, hold up, let me change my shoes." She leaned against Terra while she took off the Master's Nike Keys, and wore her own thigh-high boots. "By the way, let's not tell Master about the shoes, or my situation, okay?" She smiled at him.

Her charm won him over. "Okay, sure," replied Terra. The two returned inside to see Notus sitting on the floor, surrounded by a team of paramedics. Notus was breathing deeply into an oxygen mask attached to his face. The Master was speaking to one of the medics, saying, "He was dusting my office, and started a fit of coughing."

"How much dust was in there?" asked the medic.

Meanwhile, Jerome was still at the city hall, waiting in line behind the angry guy.


	5. Dinner with the Students

Aqua and Terra prepared dinner while Master went to the hospital with Notus.

Actually, Terra was doing most of the work. He was chopping and washing veggies and slicing the meat into thin strips. Aqua kept him company. "Poor Notus," she said. "I hope he's okay."

"Yeah, I hope he's fine," said Terra.

"But Terra, if he's fine, then you're out."

"What?"

"Master wasn't going to pick you as his student."

"Huh? How do you know that?"

Aqua chuckled, but she didn't respond. Terra scowled. He returned to his cooking. The spicy smell of the broth simmering prompted Aqua to say, "It smells good."

"Thanks. We're having hotpot tonight."

"Yum. Let's eat."

"Shouldn't we wait for the others?"

"Nope."

So the two started eating. About ten minutes later, Jerome returned. "Ugh, I had the worst time with this paperwork stuff—oh, something smells good."

Aqua winked. "Thanks, it's a family recipe."

Terra added, "My family recipe. I cooked."

"Yeah, he did," she admitted with a giggle. "Grab a seat." She patted a chair beside her. "You'll love it."

So Jerome joined the dinner. Aqua asked, "So, what's your deal Jerome? Why are you here?"

Jerome swallowed a bite of his food. "I come from a long, proud line of keyblade masters. My grandfather, my grandfather's father, my grandfather's father's father. We were all masters. Unfortunately, my father succumbed to the darkness in his heart and failed to gain the Mark of Mastery. He became a villain, joining with the dark forces of evil that cause so much chaos in my world. Such a fate should have befallen me, had my mother not run away from my father. She hid in a small village in the countryside and raised me in the light, knowing that one day, I must master the keyblade and fight my father to the death."

Aqua's jaw dropped.

Terra exclaimed, "What the hell? You have to kill your own father?"

Jerome nodded.

The students were silent for a while.

That's when Master Eraqus arrived. He seemed really guilty. "Poor kid," he mumbled to himself. "But I'm glad that I didn't try cleaning that mess myself." Upon seeing his three students eating dinner, he cleared his throat and said, "Hello everyone. Notus will be fine. Unfortunately, he has decided not to join us a student here."

Everyone raised their eyebrows in suspicion. Master awkwardly joined the three of them for dinner. "So, how did the chores—I mean training go?"

Aqua replied, "Your package was opened when I got it. You might want to talk to the post office about that."

"Shopping was easy," replied Terra.

"Some man was irate about the rezoning of the city, so he made quite the commotion at city hall," Jerome replied.

The Master, with a mouthful of beansprouts, said, "Did that rezoning measure pass? That is terrible. I would be angry too."

Jerome raised an eyebrow again. "Okay… Well, uh, when do we start our training?"

The Master shrugged. "Tomorrow afternoon? Maybe around noon?"

Terra answered, "Sounds good to me."

Jerome frowned at Master. "Isn't there some sort of agenda? Don't you want to test our skills?"

Master checked his watch. "It's too late now, so let's do all of that tomorrow." He slurped up some noodles. "This is some good hotpot. Who made this?"

Aqua said, "Me and Terra."

"Mostly me," Terra corrected.

The Master nodded. "Good! A plus! Keep this up and I see a Mark of Mastery in your future."

Jerome frowned. With gravity in his voice, he asked, "You're not serious, right?"

Master Eraqus shook his head. "Of course not. I'm joking."

"Should a keyblade master be joking like that?"

"Why are you asking so many questions? That is disrespectful Jerome."

Jerome, lowered his head and grumbled. "Is this guy really a keyblade master?"

Terra reached over and ruffled Jerome's hair. "Cheer up, Jerome. Let's celebrate the fact that we're now students of Master Eraqus."

Jerome slapped Terra's hand away. "Don't touch me! What's wrong with you?"

Master Eraqus said, "Careful, careful! Don't spill the broth!"

Aqua laughed. Her laughter caught their attention. In between bouts of giggles, she said, "This is fun." Terra laughed as well. Master chuckled. Jerome rolled his eyes, but his lips betrayed him with a smile.


	6. Dusty Magic

Jerome, Aqua and Terra each got their own bedroom. They were able to unpack their stuff, shower and get a good night's sleep. The next day, the three of them met in the training grounds at the mountain summit at noon.

Master Eraqus wasn't there yet.

So to kill some time, the students inspected the equipment. Among other things, there were giant rings that they could spin by whacking them with a keyblade. Then Jerome decided to do some stretching in the middle of the training field. He was dressed in a red headband, a white t-shirt with the sleeves cut off, and baggy jogging pants. Aqua sat along the edge of a cliff on the far side of the training field. Today she was wearing black athletic leggings and an oversized t-shirt. Terra was sitting beside her. His brunette hair was loose and spiky. He wore a black t-shirt that read "Hug Me Daddy" and dark brown basketball shorts.

Aqua quietly stared at the clear afternoon sky. Terra tried to start conversation. "He has a lot of equipment."

"Yup," she curtly replied.

Terra didn't take the hint. "It's going to be an interesting day. I wonder what he's going to teach us."

"We'll see as soon as he gets here."

"He's running late isn't he? Do you think Master forgot? Or maybe he's testing us? Maybe he wants to see if we'll start practicing on our own."

Aqua stood up, turned around, and shouted, "Hey, Jerry! Terra said that he could beat you in a one-on-one sparring match."

Terra's eyes widened. "What?!"

Jerome smirked. "Oh really?" Jerome summoned his keyblade, the Metal Chocobo keyblade. He took a fighting stance. "I've trained with my mother. Come at me."

Terra fussed, "I'm not trying to pick a fight, Aqua."

She said, "He called you a Mommy's boy!"

"So what if I am?" retorted a blushing Jerome. "I shall show you the strength of the house of Skyview!"

Terra, utterly confused, glared at Aqua while summoning his keyblade, Earthshaker. "What is your problem?"

She patted him on the back. "Go fight a good fight lover boy." She pushed him toward Jerome. Jerome grabbed Terra and smacked him on the forehead with the butt of his keyblade. Terra stumbled backward. "Ow!" Terra yelled.

Jerome dropped down and used his legs to sweep Terra off of his feet. Terra fell back and donked his head. "Argh!" Terra grunted.

"Too easy," Jerome taunted.

Aqua walked toward Jerome as she summoned her keyblade, Rainfall. "My turn." He put up his guard and attempted to circle Aqua. She rushed him. Clang! Clang! Clang! The two parried each other's attacks. Aqua tried to kick Jerome in the knee. Jerome back-flipped out of the way. With each blow he evaded. Upward slash. Cartwheel. Thrust. Dodge roll.

When he thought he saw an opening, he threw his blade in a strike raid. Aqua caught it. Using both his blade and hers, she attacked. Jerome fell to his knees.

Aqua tossed his keyblade back to him. "Good job," she said.

"Wow," Terra mumbled.

"Wow," Jerome mumbled.

"Wow," Master mumbled as he approached them.

"I bet you thought I was just a pretty face," she said to her peers as she tossed her keyblade in the air and caught it. "Well you're wrong." She pointed her keyblade to Master. "And you're late."

Master Eraqus cleared his throat. He had forgot to set his alarm clock and had been asleep until just a few minutes ago. So he lied, "I had some business to attend to this morning. I am glad to see you students are eager to learn." The Master summoned his own keyblade, Master's Defender. He held it up toward the sky. "Okay, so, what is the first rule of wielding a keyblade?" he asked.

Jerome answered, "Never give into the darkness."

Master responded, "Well, that's very, very, very important, yes, but I mean the first fundamental rule."

Terra answered, "Being chosen by the keyblade is a great responsibility."

Master's eyes widened. "Yes. Very good, Terra. I didn't expect that sort of answer from you."

Terra narrowed his eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Master continued, "The keyblade is a very powerful weapon. It enables the wielder to utilize magic, open dimensions, and protect the light of the worlds. With its power, your bodies will grow stronger. You can accomplish amazing feats. But, as Jerome said, if you give into the darkness in your heart, the keyblade can become a force for evil." He sighed. "Two of my closest friends have succumb to the darkness. Luckily I was able to save one of them. As your master, I will strive my hardest to prevent my students from the same fate. So, shall we begin our training?"

The three of them nodded.

"Alright then," Master said. "First we shall learn aero magic. This utilizes the strength of the wind. Point your keyblade at your target. Focus your mind on the movement of the air around you. Can you feel it? The gentle breeze? Your steady breath? Once you can feel at one with your surroundings, cast the spell. Aero!" Wind whipped around Master. His clothing fluttered, and a whirlwind rose above him and dissipated outward. "Understood?"

The students nodded.

"Shall we practice, then? Jerome, why don't you start first?"

"I have never tried this spell before, so please be patient with me." Jerome closed his eyes. He took a deep breath. He exhaled. The Springtime air carried the faintly sweet smell of flowers. It danced over his skin, tickled his neck, and cooled his cheeks. Jerome opened his eyes. "Aero!" He produced a slight draft that tossed his silver hair around. It quickly fizzled out. He scowled.

Master said, "That's fine for a first attempt Jerome. Perhaps it would be better to relax. Allow the magic to happen, rather than willing it to happen."

"I see."

"Terra, why don't you try next."

"Sure," Terra said. He swung his keyblade haphazardly. "Aero!" The whirlwind he whipped up blew his clothes about and caused him to stumble backwards.

Master's eyes widened. "Well, would you look at that! I didn't expect you to get it right on your first try."

Terra scowled. "Do you think I'm stupid or something?"

Eraqus turned to Aqua. "Your turn, Aqua."

She raised her keyblade in the air. "Aero," she said. The wind she created knocked both Jerome and Terra down. Master was quite impressed.

"A bit too strong, but good job, Aqua. All of you, follow me." He led them away from the training field, and toward his office. He opened the door and then opened the window. "I want you all to practice your aero magic here. Make sure to clear out all of the dust in this room. Once that is done, declutter all the stuff. Books go in the bookshelf, magic items go in that treasure chest, and anything else goes in this box in the corner here." He pointed to each object as he explained. Finally, he handed each of them a face mask. "Careful not to breathe in the dust. Come get me when you're finished. I'll be on the porch."

With that Master Eraqus left. Jerome groaned and rubbed his temples. Terra put on his facemask. "The sooner we get this done," Terra said, "the sooner we move on to the next lesson."

"This isn't a lesson! This is a chore!" Jerome fussed as he punched the wall. A cloud of dust rose into the air, causing Jerome to cough. Aqua put on her mask. Then she forced Jerome to wear his own mask, while chiding him, "Do you want to end up in the hospital too?"

Raising her keyblade, she shouted, "Aero!" Unfortunately, she whipped up a whirlwind so strong that all the clutter in the office whipped around. Aqua got hit in the face by a dictionary, Jerome dodged a ream of printer paper, and a sharp pen lodged itself into the wall, two centimeters away from Terra's face.

Aqua winced in pain. "Oooouch. Okay, so maybe I should learn to tone that down a little."

"You just made it worse," Jerome complained. The room was a sandstorm of dust particles. They could barely see.

"Poor Notus was breathing this in," Terra commented.

Aqua frowned. "I can fix this." She raised her keyblade again. "Aero!" Yet again, she caused a tornado inside the room. The desk lifted up and started spinning. A computer monitor flew toward Jerome, who ducked out of the way. A pair of scissors lodged into the wall between Terra's legs. Aqua dodged a printer, which slammed through the wall and landed in the hallway.

Aqua winced. "Oops."

Master Eraqus had heard the noise. He ran back to the office. "What's going on?" He saw the mess. "Are you three alright?"

Terra nodded. "I think so."

Jerome yelled at Aqua, "If it didn't work the first time, why would it work the second time? Are you stupid?"

"I wasn't trying to make the wind so strong the second time! It was an accident!"

"Calm down you two," said the Master. "Fighting amongst yourselves won't help you finish the task at hand. Try it again. This time I'll stay and observe." He put on a face mask as well. "Alright, hop to it."

Aqua nudged Jerome. "Yeah, hop to it."

With a roll of his eyes, Jerome held his keyblade out in front of him, planted his feet firmly on the ground, took a deep breath and focused.

"If we were in a battle, I would have hit you by now."

"Shut up Aqua, I'm trying to focus."

"Who is going to let you focus when you're in the middle of a fight?"

"We aren't fighting right now! We're doing chores!"

Master Eraqus interrupted, "This is training."

"No, this is a chore," Jerome retorted. "We're cleaning your office."

"Which also happens to be a perfect training exercise," insisted Master Eraqus.

Jerome, frustrated, shouted, "Forget it! Just let me focus!" He then thrust his keyblade upward. "Aero!"

Nothing happened.

"Aero!" he shouted again.

Nothing.

"Aero!"

Yet again, nothing. Jerome, his cheeks reddening, turned away and leaned his head against the wall. Terra patted him on the back. He smacked Terra's hand away. Aqua giggled. Then Terra said, "My turn." He waved his keyblade. "Aero!" He cleared the dust out of the room.

Master Eraqus clapped. "Wow, I'm surprised Terra. Good job."

"Surprised? Did you not think I could do it?"

"Once you three finish cleaning the office, we will practice fighting for the rest of the day," Master Eraqus instructed as he left. The students sighed.


	7. Serious Bonding

Later that day Master Eraqus was watching the three students practice their keyblade strokes. They swung their blades, practicing combos using the spinning rings. "Aqua, good form," Master Eraqus noted. "You look graceful. Jerome, your movements are flowing well. Good. Terra, you're really slow. Speed it up."

With a heaving sigh, Terra complained, "I'm going as fast as I can."

Master shook his head. "You look like you're having a hard time swinging your keyblade. Loosen up. Don't put so much strength into each stroke."

Terra nodded. "Yes Master."

Master checked his watch. "You know what, that's enough practice for right now. I have another task for you three to complete. Since you three decided to destroy the wall of my office, you will be heading to the hardware store to buy supplies and fix it." He handed Aqua an envelope. "There's some munny in that. Use it to buy what you need."

Jerome rolled his eyes. "Another chore."

"While this seems like a chore," Master retorted, "it is actually a team building activity. By becoming good friends, all of you can encourage each other in your quest for keyblade mastery."

"Bonding over chores. Great." Jerome complained.

So the three of them went to the hardware store. Browsing through the aisles filled with power saws, plaster and plywood, Aqua asked, "Who knows how to fix a wall?"

Jerome shrugged. "Not me."

Terra answered, "I do."

Aqua teased, "What you lack in keyblade skill, you make up for in handiness."

Terra frowned at her. He marched away. Aqua winced. "Oops. I think I pissed him off."

"Congratulations," Jerome sarcastically said.

"I didn't mean to upset him. I was teasing him."

"Is that why you came here? To be a tease? Are you even serious about this training, Aqua?"

Aqua crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Why would I be here if I wasn't serious? I could be a million other places."

With a snide chuckle, Jerome said, "Maybe those million other places would be better suited for you."

Aqua shot him a dirty look. She walked away in the opposite direction.

Thus, Jerome was alone in the hardware store.

He put his hands in his pockets.

He looked around.

He stood there for a few minutes. An employee walked by and asked, "Do you need any help young man?"

Jerome quickly shook his head and walked away. He told himself, "I guess I should catch up with Terra." He found Terra looking at patches of drywall on the shelf. Jerome stood quietly next to him for a while. After five minutes passed, he spoke up. "Need some help?"

Terra shook his head. "Nope."

Silence. Another five minutes passed by. Finally, Terra selected a pack of drywall. He then went the next aisle to look for furring strips and a power drill. Finally, he selected some joint tape and plaster compound. He carried all that in a basket as the two walked to the checkout line. While waiting, Terra seemed really tense. He had a faraway look in his eyes, his brows were slightly furrowed, and his lips were tightly pressed together.

"What's wrong with you?" Jerome asked.

"She thinks I'm pathetic."

"Who? Aqua?"

"Yeah."

Jerome patted Terra on the back, "No, Terra, she didn't mean it."

Terra's face lit up. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, she was just teasing you," Jerome answered.

"Oh." Terra exhaled in relief. "That's great."

"Why do you even care what she thinks?"

"If she thinks that I'm dumb, then I don't have a chance with her."

"So you like her?"

"Yeah. She's so awesome."

"Are you here to master the keyblade or are you here to flirt with Aqua?"

"To master the keyblade of course!" Terra told him, with a determined grin. "But if I can steal Aqua's heart along the way, then that's good too."

"You are so stupid."

"You are so arrogant," Terra replied with a frown.

Soon the two were next in line. As the old man cashier rang up the items, Terra turned to Jerome. "The munny?"

"I don't have it. Aqua does," replied Jerome.

"Where is she?"

"I don't know."

Terra sighed. To the cashier, he said, "We'll be right back. Can you just skip us really quick?"

The cashier grumbled something about youngsters and their nonsense as Terra and Jerome left to find Aqua. They searched around the store. Terra started calling her name. "Aqua! Aqua!"

Jerome rolled his eyes and complained, "Stop yelling in the middle of the store."

"How else are we supposed to find her?" He crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I should have asked for her phone number. Then I could call her."

Jerome took a moment to rethink the situation. "Do you think she left with the money?"

"Left where?" Terra asked.

"I don't know. Maybe she went to go buy something for herself."

Terra shook his head. "Nah. She wouldn't do that."

"Then where could she have gone?"

"I don't know!"

"Master is such a bad judge of character," Jerome said as he shook his head. "He picked an idiot and a thief."

Terra shoved him. "Why are you such a jerk?"

Jerome shoved Terra. "I'm not a jerk. I'm the only serious one here."

"Well then, go be serious somewhere else!"

Jerome groaned and marched toward the store's entrance. "This whole situation is bullshit," he grumbled to himself as he emerged from the hardware store. "I'm here to become a keyblade master, not a carpenter!"

"Do you ever stop complaining?" asked a familiar voice. It was Aqua. She was leaning against the outside wall of the store.

Jerome lost his cool. "What are you doing out here? We were searching all over for you!"

Aqua lost her cool too. "You told me to go away! So I did! What else do you want, you jerk?"

"But you have the money! How the hell are we supposed to buy the stuff?"

Aqua blushed. She hit herself on the forehead. "Oh, my bad." She shook her head. "I was so angry that I didn't even think about that." She handed the munny envelope to him. "Here."

Snatching it from her hand, he asked, "Did you take any?"

Aqua shoved him. "What the hell?! You don't trust me?"

"Of course not. You're a deceitful little punk who uses her charm to get what she wants. I'm sure that you're accustomed to being spoiled. Well I'm not going to spoil you. I'm here for one purpose and one purpose only: to become a keyblade master."

Aqua got so angry that her face turned red. "You piece of…!" She started to sniffle. She burst into tears. And she stood there, crying. Of course, Jerome didn't expect this. Caught off guard, he looked around, as if to find someone to ask for help. The few people that he did see either gave him dirty looks, or whispered among themselves. Panicking, Jerome asked, "Why are you crying?"

"You don't know what I've given up to be here! You don't know how much I want this! You aren't the only one who is serious! I know that you have a difficult path ahead of you, but that doesn't give you the right to be a jerk!"

Jerome didn't answer. He simply gawked at Aqua until she stopped crying. She sniffled, wiped her face and marched back inside. Jerome followed her. They met up with Terra, and the three of them bought the supplies.

Silently, they walked up the mountain, to return to Master Eraqus's palace. Halfway through their journey, Aqua said, "Hey, Terra, sorry about teasing you. I thought it was funny. I didn't mean it."

Terra replied, "No problem. I overreacted I think."

"I don't ever want to upset you, Terra, because we are FRIENDS and FRIENDS do not upset FRIENDS or make FRIENDS cry by saying terrible things to them," she emphasized.

"I didn't cry," Terra insisted.

Aqua glared at Jerome. "Good, because I would be a total JERK if I made you cry over something really stupid and did not even have the decency to apologize."

"You aren't a jerk Aqua!"

Jerome stepped in to say, "She's talking about me." He scratched the back of his head as he awkwardly apologized, "Sorry for what I said to you."

Terra jumped in, "What did you say to her?"

"It doesn't matter," Jerome retorted, "Because what I'm saying now is that I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being a jerk today. Although I didn't come here to make FRIENDS," he looked to Aqua as he emphasized that, "I guess that from now on, I'll try to be a better FRIEND, to the both of you."

"Good," Aqua said, still pouting.

Terra wrapped an arm around Jerome's shoulder. "Good."

In the end, they fixed the wall together.


	8. A Change of Clothes

For the next month, Aqua, Terra and Jerome trained under Master Eraqus. Their days usually consisted of a couple of hours of practice, followed by a battery of chores. On this particular day, they were on the training field at the summit. Master Eraqus handed each of his students a piece of armor—a shoulder plate. He said, "Today marks the end of the first month as students in my care. I'm proud of what you three have accomplished so far."

Jerome mumbled, "What have we accomplished so far?"

Master Eraqus completely ignored him. "I believe you three are all ready for the next step. Armor. Wielding a keyblade while wearing armor is much more difficult than wielding it in your typical, comfortable, loose, revealing clothing." He paused to look to Aqua. Today she was dressed in a blue tank top and black short shorts. She noticed his gaze. She cringed, took a step back, and tried to avoid eye contact.

Master Eraqus returned to his senses and continued, "So it is important to practice in the armor." He affixed the shoulder plate to the sleeve of his jacket. Dramatically, he raised one hand. Then he slammed the it on the piece of armor. With a flash of light, he was magically wrapped in polished bronze armor. He said, "It can protect you from the darkness in between worlds. It is flexible, lightweight and strong."

He demonstrated an attack combo for them. It involved jumping in to the air, doing three aerial somersaults, dropping down, rolling forward, slashing the keyblade, and finishing with a burst of firaga magic. "Alright students, activate your armor and perform that combo."

So they each affixed the shoulder plate on top of their clothing and pounded it. Terra's armor was a golden and iron-red suit. Aqua's was a cobalt-blue and silver. Jerome's armor was black and chromium silver, with a hint of gold.

Immediately, Aqua and Jerome fell to the ground. Aqua exclaimed, "This is so heavy!" Struggling to his knees, Jerome said, "I feel like I'm being tackled by a bear!"

Terra raised his hands and kicked his feet. "It's not too heavy for me."

Master Eraqus, still in his own armor, mentioned, "As you practice, it shall feel lighter." With a chuckle, he continued, "Terra is always surprising me with his abilities. I suppose I should have expected this, though, as he is the strongest in terms of brute strength. That's the only talent he has."

Terra glared at the master and asked, "Why are you always belittling me?"

Eraqus ignored him of course. Aqua cried out, "I can't move!" So Terra pulled her up to a standing position. Once he released her, she buckled under the weight of her armor and fell face down.

"You okay Aqua?" Terra asked.

She weakly answered, "No. I'm just gonna lie here for a sec."

So Terra instead offered his assistance to Jerome, who shouted, "No! I don't need your help!"

Jerome struggled to rise to his feet. He stood up straight for a moment, but then he fell forward, sprawled out on the ground. He grunted under the weight of the armor. Master Eraqus and Terra stared at Jerome. Terra asked, "Are you okay Jerry?"

Jerome did not respond. Terra turned to Master Eraqus. Master Eraqus said, "Well, then Terra, since you are the only one capable of moving at the moment, you should repeat my movements."

Terra nodded. He tried to jumped into the air, but it was more like a hop. The weight of the armor pulled him down quickly. Startled, Terra looked at his master. Eraqus said, "Keep practicing. Even if you must practice jumping in the armor all day, then that's what you'll do."

Terra sighed. He started jumping in place. Meanwhile, Jerome managed to pull himself to his knees. "GRRRRRRRAAAAAH!" He cried out in agony as he rose to his feet. Two seconds later, he collapsed yet again.

Aqua whimpered, "I seriously can't move." The three students struggled for about an hour, before Eraqus got tired of watching them. He decided, "Since no one can copy my movements, then we'll stop training with the armor. We'll go back to the basics and do strength training."

Terra nodded and pounded his shoulder plate to release the armor. Jerome struggled to press the shoulder plate to release his own armor, and Master had to release Aqua's armor for her. Once free, the latter two exhaled with relief.

Eraqus said, "Alright, so, the first activity for strength training is mowing the grass across the entire training field."

Jerome groaned. "Are you kidding me? That's just another chore!"

"No, this is strength training."

"Mowing the lawn is strength training?" Jerome repeated. "How so, Master?"

"Well, um, the stamina that is required to upkeep the landscaping of this entire place is the strength building part of the process. So when you have finished the task, you will see your strength greatly improved, Jerome. So stop asking questions and complete the task you have been given." Master Eraqus pointed all the way to the courtyard and further down the mountain. "All of it. Everything must be mowed. Weeds must be pulled and fallen branches and bramble removed."

Jerome leaned his head backward, brushed his bangs out of his face, and sighed. Terra nodded. Aqua pouted.

"I shall be monitoring your progress," said the Master, as he walked away.


	9. Yaaas Gurl Slay

Soon enough, two months had passed since the youngsters first became Eraqus's students. Today they were able to take a break from training, because Eraqus had a dentist's appointment. Each went on about their own business; Jerome decided to practice by himself, Aqua decided to go shopping, and Terra decided to tag along with her.

The two went to the local mall. It was a large building, filled with thirty-three stores, a food court and a movie theater. Aqua, dressed in a dark blue denim mini-dress and Terra, dressed in a black shirt that said, "Daddy's Little Boy" and dark brown pants, walked side-by-side.

"This is a nice mall," Aqua remarked. "I came here to just look around. Do you need something in particular?" Aqua asked.

"Uh…" Terra hesitated. "No. I just wanted to hang out with you, honestly."

"I know," she told him with a wink. "It's super obvious that you like me."

Terra blushed. "Uh…"

Aqua giggled. "You're so bad with girls."

Terra ruffled the hair on the back of his head. "Yeah. Um… Do you like me?"

"Are we in 7th grade, Terra?" Aqua asked with a laugh. Yet he patiently waited for her response. That's when she realized that he was serious. She told him, "Let's just be friends first, okay?"

Terra sighed. "That's cool."

"What? Did you expect love at first sight?"

"Yeah…"

"That's so naïve." She reached up and poked his cheek. "You're so adorable." She chuckled. Her peripheral vision locked onto a boutique called, _Yaaas Gurl Slay_ She pointed to it. "Let's check out that store."

So the two entered inside. The shelves were stocked with the latest in young adult fashion. A sales associate who was standing a few feet away called out, "Hey girl, if you need any help just holla."

Aqua nodded. She began to peruse the merchandise in the store. Terra stood a few steps back, so as to not be overbearing. He watched as she picked out a black, lacy camisole. "This is cute," she said. She also picked out a cutoff jean jacket. "No, no, I'm overdoing it with the denim lately…"

She put both back. After about thirty minutes of browsing, she picked out a pair of athletic shorts and a loose t-shirt that said "Don't Kiss Me." Turning to Terra, she asked, "What do you think?"

"I think you look good in anything," he replied.

"You are so sweet that it's annoying. I'm gonna go try it on." And she left to the changing room. Terra wondered aloud, "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"A little bit of both," said the sales associate as she walked by.

When Aqua emerged, she was wearing the outfit. She showed it off to Terra. "What do you think? And be honest."

Terra honestly said, "I think it suits you."

Aqua raised her eyebrows, suspiciously, "Okay then."

So she changed back into her own clothes. She decided to buy it. The cashier rung up her items and Aqua handed over her credit card. The cashier swiped it. "Um, it says it's declined." Aqua's eyes widened, "Try it again."

The cashier swiped again. "Still declined."

"Shit," Aqua mumbled. She handed a different card to the cashier. "Try this one."

The cashier did. "Nope. Declined."

Aqua groaned. She handed another card to the cashier. "Try this one then."

The cashier swiped it. "Girl, it still says declined."

"Oh my God…" Aqua mumbled. Then she forced a smile, said, "Nevermind," and briskly walked out of the store. The cashier said, "Wait, girl, don't forget your cards!"

"Just keep 'em! Thanks girl!" Aqua yelled out as she left the store.

The cashier lady looked to Terra. "Um, so, you gonna take her cards or what?"

Terra said, "Yeah. And I'll pay." So he bought the outfit for Aqua, grabbed her credit cards and left to find her. After a brief search, he found Aqua on a bench sitting outside, in front of the mall. She was texting on her phone. He sat down beside her, keeping quiet as she frantically tapped on the screen of her phone. She rubbed her forehead, obviously frustrated. "Oh my God. This can't be happening…"

"What's going on?" Terra asked.

"My Mom!" she yelled. "She actually cut off my credit cards!"

"Is it because you ran away from home?"

Aqua nodded. "She hadn't cut them off since I left, so I didn't think she'd seriously do it." She showed her phone to Terra. "Look what she said."

Terra took the phone. Aqua had texted, _What did you do to my cards?_ Her mom had responded, _So you're finally replying to my texts?_ Aqua had then texted, _My cards?_

 _Aqua come home._ Texted her mother.

 _My cards?_ Aqua repeated.

 _You've been gone for two months. I get it. You're mad. Come home._

 _My cards?_

 _Your brother is really worried. At least call him._

Aqua hadn't replied to that. Curious, Terra scrolled backwards through her text conversations. He read a month's worth of Aqua's mother's messages—all without a response from Aqua. Wincing, he said, "Aqua, your mother seems like she's really worried. She's texting you stuff like, 'Stop ignoring my calls,' 'Answer your phone,' 'Where are you?' 'Aqua, stop being stupid.' 'Come home.'"

Aqua shook her head, "She's pretending to care."

Terra pointed to a specific text message and read it aloud, "Here she says, 'Aqua, come home. You shouldn't be worrying me and Rio like this.'"

Aqua shook her head. "She's trying to mess with my mind."

"I think she's really worried."

"No she's not, Terra! She can track the credit cards. She can track my phone. She can find me if she wants. But she doesn't want to look for me. She wants me to come crying back home to her. She wants me to feel like I'm useless without her."

Terra lowered his eyes. "That's not right. A mother can't do that to her child."

"Well mine can. She doesn't care whether I'm safe or not. She only cares that I meet my social obligations." She snatched her phone from Terra. "I'm supposed to be at a stupid debutant ball next week, and then there's a charity beauty pageant next month and then there's a wedding for a family friend's son at the end of the year. That's why she wants me home."

Suddenly, Aqua's phone rang.

Her mom was calling.

She rejected the call.

Terra scowled at her.

"Don't look at me like that," Aqua demanded, because the severe disappointment on Terra's face triggered a strong urge to cry. So she ran as fast as she could away from Terra.

Obviously, Terra couldn't chase her. That would look really weird. So he sat there for a while and wondered how a daughter's relationship with her mother could deteriorate to such a sad situation. Upon gathering his thoughts, he walked home. On the way up the stairs in the courtyard, Terra passed by Jerome. Jerry was sweating, and had a towel around his neck, as if he had been working out. He asked, "Did you go shopping, Terra?" He pointed to the bag in Terra's hand. Terra had forgotten that he had bought the outfit for Aqua.

"Yeah, it's for Aqua," Terra admitted. "Have you seen her?"

"I saw her run by here a while ago. Literally, she was running, full speed. I wonder if she was training."

Terra shrugged. He made his way toward Aqua's room. Knocking on the door, he said, "Aqua, it's me."

"Go away," she demanded.

"I have a present," he said.

Aqua was silent. Then the door opened. "What are you talking about?"

He handed the bag to her. "The clothes."

She frowned. Then she started crying. "I hate nice guys."

"Um…"

"You probably came from a nice family, huh? A simple, loving family. You probably had a dad that worked hard to be the breadwinner, and a mom that could hold a job while still taking care of the kids. And I bet you and your family had dinner together every night and talked about your day and laughed and smiled." She wiped her face. "I bet your dad took off days from work to watch your sports tournaments and I bet your mom kissed you and tucked you into bed each night. I bet you want nothing more than to make your parents proud, and I'm sure that they support you in everything that you do, huh?"

Terra was startled. She was exactly right. "Um…"

"And you're so awkward. I bet you're an only child."

Right again. He blushed. Aqua laughed. "You're so ridiculous," she said. "I'm the opposite." She sat down on the floor outside of her room, cuddling Terra's present against her chest. Terra sat beside her. She explained, "I guess everything was fine until Dad died, when I was ten. That's when Mom completely changed. She took over the family business, and she suddenly had all these strict expectations for me and my older brother. She sent him boarding school. I stayed home with her."

Aqua ran her hands through her hair, "She was always critical of me. She would say things like, 'Aqua, you need to be more lady-like,' 'Aqua, your hair is ugly,' 'Aqua, if you gain any more weight, you'll break your legs,' 'Aqua, stop socializing with people beneath your social class,' 'Rebel against me all you want, Aqua, but I'll be right in the end.'"

Pulling her knees to her chest, Aqua trembled as she fought back tears. "She had my whole life planned out for me. She knew what high school I would attend, what friends I would make, what clothes I would wear. But I didn't want that. And if there was one thing that I learned from my father, it was his catchphrase, 'Do everything you do with love and passion.' I didn't want to live her life. I wanted to live mine."

She held out her hand, and summoned her keyblade, "And the only thing that I was ever passionate about is the keyblade. I remember seeing the excitement on my Dad's face the first time I ever summoned it. He told me that I could use this power to do some sort of good in the world. So that became my dream. I trained myself with this keyblade because I thought that one day, I could use it to do something amazing." She waved her hand and it disappeared.

Closing her eyes, Aqua leaned her head back against the wall, "But that wasn't in Mom's plan. She hated the keyblade. She hated the idea that she couldn't control me. And I know that if I talk to her, she'll try to drag me away from this. So I can't talk to her..." She opened her eyes and gazed at Terra. "I thought long and hard before making the decision to run away. I was terrified at first, really." She rested her head against her knees, poked Terra's cheek, and smiled. "But then I met you, and you made me laugh with your stupid pick up line." She mocked his voice, "Like it? Take me to McRonalds, cuz I'm loving it." She laughed. In her normal voice, she concluded, "You're so nice to me. Thank you for that."

"Y-you're welcome," stammered Terra. His face turned red, and he didn't know what else to say. So the two were silent. Aqua spoke up. "I guess I'm glad she cut off the credit cards. I don't know why I thought I could still use my family's munny even though I ran away…" She wiped her face again. "I guess I'll have to find a part time job or something if I want to go shopping. Which is good. I need to earn my own munny for once."

Terra said, "That's a positive way to look at it. But what happens if your mom comes here to take you back?"

Aqua shrugged. "Hopefully I'll have enough strength to break free from her grasp once and for all. Right?"

Terra nodded. "Right."

Aqua smiled. "Thank you." She hugged him. He returned the hug.

Jerome walked by. He noticed the hugging. He rolled his eyes. Then he went to his own room.


	10. Skeletons in the Attic

The students were gathered in the throne room, standing at attention before their Master.

"For today's training," Master Eraqus said, "you will be helping me to clean out my attics."

The three students rolled their eyes. Jerome complained, "That's not training. It's a chore."

Master Eraqus tried to deny it. "No, this is training. I'm training you to, um, decipher between treasure and junk because… the essence of being a keyblade master is… um…"

They glared at him.

"Alright, I admit it. This one is just a chore. I'm looking for something and I know I put it in one of the attics here somewhere. So I'll need you to bring down boxes so that I can sort through them. After that, you can sweep and dust the attics to clean them out. Finally, you'll return the unimportant things there."

Thus, Aqua, Jerome and Terra found themselves cleaning out one of the many attics in Master Eraqus's palace. There were boxes upon boxes of random junk, piled high into each nook and cranny.

"This guy's a hoarder," Terra said.

"Ugh, I hate these chores," Jerome complained. "But I'd be less averse to doing them if he was honest and called them chores. We're not idiots."

Aqua called out, "Hey, guys, look at this." Terra and Jerome walked over to see that Aqua was holding a picture of Master Eraqus and a really pretty woman, smiling at each other all lovey-dovey. "Looks like Master had a girlfriend back in the day." She put the picture in her item inventory. "I'm keeping that."

Terra chastised her, "You can't do that."

"I think I can," she rebelliously replied.

Jerome nodded. "You know what, I agree with Aqua for once. There's probably a few things of value in here that Master doesn't necessarily need." He opened one of the boxes. Inside was a ton of Yu-Gee-Oh Duel Monsters cards. "Why does he have an entire box of…?" Jerome closed the box.

Aqua opened a different box. It was filled with painting supplies. Canvases, oil paint, water colors, tempuras, acrylics, paint thinner, paint brushes, palates. "Looks like Master used to be an artist."

Jerome opened another box. This one had some really retro-looking clothes. Bell-bottom jeans, tie-dye shirts, leather vests. He pulled out a pair of black, leather biking gloves, bearing a symbol of a Kingdom Key. "Nice!" He put them on.

Aqua opened up a different box. It held a plushy of pig-lady with blonde hair. "Oh my gosh! It's a Mizz Piggy doll! So cute!"

Jerome opened up a box that had a brand new, old-timey polaroid camera and film. "Mine."

Terra intervened, "Okay, you two are literally stealing."

"He probably doesn't care about any of this stuff," Aqua said as she opened another box. "Ew underwear." She closed it. "Nasty."

Jerome opened a box that had a few blankets in it. "I could use these. My room gets cold at night."

Aqua opened one that was full of children's toys. "Do you think Master had a family once?" She pulled out one of those play-fight robot sets.

Jerome opened one full of board games. "Are either of you interested in these? He has Battleships, Monopolize, CandiLand, Clues, SorryNotSorry, Command Board, and Connect Five."

Aqua opened one box that had a bunch of hardware supplies. She frowned. "Terra, this one is full stuff that we could have used to fix the wall that one time."

Jerome opened a box that was full of nice shoes. Like really, really nice. Designer loafers, name-brand sneakers, custom-made hiking boots. "What are theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese?" He exclaimed. "Look at all these shoes!"

Aqua gaped at them. "Yes! He's my shoe size!"

As Jerome and Aqua rummaged through the shoes, Terra succumbed to their peer pressure and opened a box. His eyes widened, as it was filled with nothing but hentai manga and dirty magazines. He said nothing as he closed the box, picked it up, ran downstairs, and stashed it in his room.

He returned to see Aqua wearing Master's Nike Keys shoes. She was complaining, "He didn't even wear them! He told me to pick them up and then he put them in the attic!"

Jerome was wearing a pair of Nike Keys: Oblivion. The shoes were black and silver, and adorned with the image of an Oblivion Keyblade. "A bit tight, but I can manage."

Terra couldn't believe it. "Jerome, this is so unlike you."

"These shoes are 17600 munny."

"Each," Aqua added.

"That is waaaaaay too expensive," Terra exclaimed. "But anyway, we need to finish the task at hand."

"Okay, just one more." Aqua reached over and opened a small box. It was full of notebooks. "These look like his old journals." She picked one up and opened it. She began to read, "Year XXOO. Month XX. Day OO. Sometimes I wonder if I'm good enough to become a keyblade master. Xe… Xhe…Xheha?" She stumbled over pronouncing the name. "Xehanort is much better than me at everything. Sometimes I feel jealousy in my heart. But I know I shouldn't. I should only be encouraged to become stronger! I will become stronger than Xehanort. I will earn the Mark of Mastery. _Mark_ my words." Aqua giggled. "Young Master Eraqus sounds like a knucklehead."

Jerome nodded. "He sounds pathetic."

Terra sympathized. "Aw, give him a break."

Aqua continued reading, "In other news, I think I'm making progress with Trisha." Aqua paused. "Trisha?" she repeated. "Does that mean…?" She seemed puzzled for a moment. But then she shook her head and kept reading, "Today, I asked her on a date and she laughed at me. But she didn't say no. So that's good. I don't know if she's playing hard to get or if she seriously doesn't like me. Love is so confusing. I guess I shouldn't be so focused on her, but every time I see her, my heart skips a beat. Being a keyblade master is my goal, but if I can also win over Trisha, then I'll be extremely happy."

Terra cooed, "AAAAWWW! Master had a crush back in the day."

Jerome looked at Terra. Then he looked at Aqua. "It sounds familiar…"

Aqua closed the notebook and put it away in her item inventory. "Interesting." She stood up. "Okay, so, yeah, let's finish this chore."

"This chore wasn't so bad," Jerome said. "I feel like we learned a lot about Master today."

In the end, Master Eraqus never found what he was looking for. He grumbled to himself, "I know I put it somewhere in the attic." Aqua and Jerome felt guilty, fearing that he was looking for one of the things that they stole. Ironically, Terra felt no guilt whatsoever.


	11. I Can Fly

On the training grounds on the summit, Master Eraqus said, "Today, we'll be learning to use keyblade gliders. Who here knows what a keyblade glider is?"

Terra raised his hand. "It's when you throw your keyblade like a boomerang and it comes back to you."

Master Eraqus nodded. "Now that is an answer I expect from you, Terra."

Terra smiled.

Master Eraqus continued, "That is completely wrong."

Terra frowned.

"A keyblade glider is a vehicle that is made by transforming your keyblade. The process is very simple. Picture the image of a vehicle in your mind." He summoned his keyblade. "Imagine it as you toss your keyblade into the air." He tossed his keyblade into the air.

It returned in the shape of a flying lawn chair.

He jumped and sat on it. Soaring high into the sky, Master Eraqus disappeared among the clouds. Jerome, dreadfully confused, turned to Aqua and asked, "What sort of vehicle was that?"

Aqua, equally confused, answered, "That wasn't a vehicle, right?"

"Yeah," Jerome agreed. "When I think of a vehicle, I think of a car or a motorbike or a scooter. That was just a chair. Right?"

"Yeah. So… I don't understand…"

Terra though, was upset about something else. "I wasn't completely wrong! He threw the keyblade and it came back to him!"

Master's flying lawn chair glider returned to the ground. He hopped off of it, and poofed it back into a keyblade. "Any questions?"

Jerome asked, "What were you picturing to create that?"

"It doesn't matter what I was picturing. Think of a vehicle of your own, Jerome."

"But that wasn't a vehicle…"

"Jerome, why don't you try first to summon a keyblade glider?"

The young man was still puzzled. "Okay?" He took a step forward. He tossed his keyblade into the air.

It returned in the shape of a flying lawn chair.

He jumped onto it. Jerome looked to Master Eraqus. Master Eraqus frowned at Jerome. So Jerome explained, "I couldn't stop wondering what this thing was, so I guess I made my keyblade into it."

"Well then... Aqua, you're next," said Master. Aqua hesitated. She took a step forward and tossed her keyblade into the air.

It returned in the shape of a flying lawn chair.

She jumped onto it. Aqua looked to Master Eraqus. Master Eraqus frowned at Aqua. She said, "Me too. I'm really confused as to what this is supposed to be."

"Okay, then," Master Eraqus said. "Next, Terra. And feel free to be a little more creative. You don't need to mimic my vehicle."

"It's not a vehicle," Jerome grumbled.

Terra took a step forward. He tossed his keyblade into the air.

It returned in the shape of a bigger version of his keyblade. He jumped onto it and rode it like a surfboard. Terra smiled smugly at Master Eraqus, and repeated, "I threw my keyblade like a boomerang and it came back to me."

Master Eraqus rubbed his temples in frustration. "Well, since you three lack the creativity necessary to create your own keyblade gliders, we shall try a different approach. I have a lot of laundry that needs washing, drying, ironing and folding or hanging. You can spend the next few hours doing that while you think of creative vehicles."

"After every training session, we end up doing chores," complained Jerome.

"Hop to it," Master said, while clapping his hands.


	12. Are You Working Hard

Master had jury duty today, so training was canceled. As usual, Jerome was training on his own. In the training field, he practiced guarding technique, using one of those machines that automatically shoots baseballs. He had just finished a round of this, when he heard someone approach him. "You hungry?" Terra asked as he wrapped an arm around Jerome's shoulders.

Jerome wiped the sweat off of his brow and shook his head. "No. I'm busy."

"But I know that you haven't had lunch yet. You've been here all morning."

"I'm fine," he insisted. As if to argue otherwise, Jerome's stomach growled. Terra chuckled, so Jerome admitted, "Okay, maybe I am a bit hungry. But I can't allow myself to eat until I've mastered—"

Terra squeezed his arm around Jerome's neck. "Let's go to McRonalds."

"McRonalds?"

"Yup."

"Why?"

"I'm in the mood for a burger. Maybe some fries." Terra smiled. "My treat. Come on."

"Oh fine," Jerome agreed.

So the two walked to the center of town, where there was a busy shopping center that attracted a huge crowd. One particular street had several fast food restaurants. The savory smells hung in the air, causing Jerome's stomach to growl louder. Terra said, "Whoa you really were hungry, weren't you? How did you expect to practice on an empty stomach?"

Jerome groaned. "I can survive a little hunger, Terra."

"I can't," Terra told him. "If I'm hungry, I need to eat. My mom always says to never to do something important on an empty stomach."

With a sad smile, Jerome agreed, "My mom always said that too. I sort of miss her. But I can't go home until I'm ready to fulfil my destiny."

"Don't talk about destiny or training today. Take a break Jerome. You need it."

The boys walked through the automatic door of the McRonalds. They were pummeled by the smell of fries. "Hello, welcome to McRonalds!" said one of the cashiers. To Jerome's surprise, that cashier was Aqua. And to Aqua's surprise, the typically calm and collected Jerome shouted, "AQUA GOT A JOB?!"

Terra burst into laughter. Aqua forced a smile and asked, "How can I help you?"

Jerome ran up to the counter. "When did you start working here?"

"Please refrain from personal conversation while I'm on the clock, Jerry. May I interest you in some black pepper fries?"

Terra approached the counter. "Um, uhh, uhhhhhhh, let's see…uh… lemme get… lemme get a number five."

Aqua was so annoyed. "Coming right up. And for you, sir?"

Jerome's jaw dropped. "Are you… being polite?"

Aqua leaned forward and whispered, "Do you want me to be mean? Because I can be mean."

Terra said, "He'll have a number five, as well."

"That'll be 675 munny," she said. Terra paid. The two sat down at a booth. Jerome ran his hands through his silver hair. "She got a job? What?"

Terra leaned back and asked, "Why are you so shaken?"

"First of all, she always tries to skip out on doing chores at home," he told Terra.

"Not true."

"Master told her to wash the dishes last night, but I saw you doing it."

"She asked me for help."

"No, she uses your kindness for her benefit. And also, how can she find the time to have a job? When does she practice? Is she serious about becoming a keyblade master?"

Terra shrugged. "I know she's serious. She wouldn't be training if she wasn't serious. None of us would be, right?"

Jerome shook his head. "And why does she need to work? Does she not have money or something?"

Terra shrugged. "Ask her, not me."

"Did you already know she worked here?"

"Yup. She asked me to help her apply. She's been working here for a while now. I try to visit her during her shift sometimes. She acts like she doesn't like it, but I think she likes it."

Jerome laughed at Terra. "You're really working hard, huh?"

"Working hard?"

"To win her over."

Terra's cheeks felt hot. "No I'm not,"

"Yes you are. You're working too hard." Jerome shook his head. "Be careful. She's not going to fall in love with you just because you're a nice guy."

"I'm not helping her because I want her to love me," argued a blushing Terra. "I'm helping her because friends help friends."

"Alright, but don't be surprised when she doesn't return the favor. She doesn't owe you anything."

"I don't expect anything in return!" declared Terra.

"Okay, whatever," Jerome mumbled, while leaning back and outstretching his arms. "Thanks for treating me to lunch, by the way."

"You're welcome."

That's when Aqua brought their order to their table. She asked, "Terra, why do you keep coming here? And this time you brought Jerry too? Are you kidding me?"

Terra teased her, "You know you like my company."

She rolled her eyes. "Jerk." But she smiled. To Jerome, she said, "I'm just doing this for some spare cash. Don't judge me."

"No judgement here," Jerome told her as he took a sip of his drink. "I'll judge you on the practice field when I beat you in combat."

Aqua rolled her eyes again, said, "I'm off in half an hour. Wait for me," and returned to her workstation.

Once Aqua was done for the day, the three of them walked home together. She complained, "My stupid lazy co-workers make me do all the work! They go in the back and take smoke breaks all the time. Cigarettes are bad for their health, yet they get at least forty-five minutes in smoke breaks each shift." She yawned. "I hope they choke on those cigarettes."

Jerome said, "That's mean Aqua. I don't say that about you when you don't do your chores at home."

She sighed. "You're right. This is such a humbling experience, doing so much work for so little money. But it's good. It builds character. And it forces me to be nice. So this is a good thing." Under her breath, she added, "At least that's what I tell myself to stay sane."

Terra ruffled Jerome's hair. "Actually, Aqua, I think he's proud of you. It's tough balancing training and work and he respects that."

"Don't put words in my mouth," retorted Jerome.

"Do you want me to put something else in your mouth?" Terra joked.

Jerome responded sarcastically, "Sure. Then I'll return the favor."

Aqua laughed. She said, "You two could be brothers. Jerry's the mean one and Terra's the nice one." She kept laughing. "I'm glad I came here. I'm glad I've been able to learn how to use the keyblade, and I'm glad that I've been able to make friends like you two. I'm really happy."

"Me too," said Terra.

"Whatever," said Jerome, who couldn't help but smile.


	13. Or Hard at Work?

One day, Aqua, Terra and Jerome gathered in the practice field for training. The Master carried a dodge ball. "So the goal of this afternoon's training is to practice your lock-on technique. I have with me, a ball. I'm going to throw it into the air, and the three of you will hit it with your keyblades to prevent it from falling. You three need to get a 1000-hit combo or you'll have to wax all of the floors."

Jerome complained, "Ugh, these chores are endless."

"It's not a chore. It's another form of training."

"Training what, Master?"

"Um, it's training your… um… Well the stroke of the mop is similar to the… um…"

Aqua interrupted, "Master we all know that you're making us do chores."

"Yeah," Terra added. "Please stop making these ridiculous explanations."

Master Eraqus scowled at his students. "Let's change that to a 2000-hit combo." He threw the ball into the air. Aqua jumped into the air to hit it. She shouted, "Jerome!"

"Got it," Jerome yelled as he ran toward the ball, jumped, did an aerial summersault, and spiked the ball down towards, "Terra!"

Terra batted the ball upwards with all his strength. Unfortunately, he popped it. The remnants of the ball clung onto his keyblade. "Oops," he muttered.

Master complained, "You three are always breaking my stuff. Hold on, I have another ball somewhere." So Master left to get another one. Meanwhile, Aqua nudged Terra. "Looks like you're too strong for your own good, Terra."

Terra flexed his arms. "I work out."

Aqua giggled. Jerome sighed. "Can you two save the flirting until after practice?" he pleaded.

In reply, Aqua approached Jerome and nestled her head against his chest. "Aw, are you feeling left out, Jerry?" He gently pushed her away, and hoped that he wasn't blushing. "Stop playing around, Aqua."

"Let's go to the movies later tonight. You, me and Terra. I just got paid, so it'll be my treat."

"Movies? Nah, I'm going to practice on my own later tonight."

"But Jerry, you work too hard! I know you want to become a master as soon as possible, but you shouldn't overwork yourself."

Jerome shook his head. "No thanks."

Aqua pouted. "Aw. Okay. I guess no movies then."

Finally, Master returned with another dodgeball. "Okay you three, let's try this again. But if you break this ball, that's it. You're waxing the floors."

After an hour or so of training, and another couple hours of waxing all the floors in the building, and another hour to cook and eat dinner, the three were free for the rest of the evening. Jerome walked toward the training field, keyblade in hand, ready to put in another few hours of work. To his surprise, Aqua and Terra were already there.

"Terra? Aqua?" Jerome called out, "what are you two doing here? I thought you were going to the movies."

Aqua threw her keyblade at him. He blocked it. The keyblade flew back into her hand. "Do you listen when I speak? I said we weren't going. So, here we are." She winked at him. "We're going to do what you want to do. But next time, you need to do what we want to do."

Jerome couldn't help but smile. "Fine then." He assumed a fighting stance. "Let's practice."

Aqua pushed Terra onto the field. "This one needs all the help he can get." Terra glared at her. She smiled at him. He blushed. He turned to Jerome, "Let's do this then."

Jerome mumbled, "Damn, she's got him whipped already." And Jerry promised himself that he would never fall so head-over-heels in love with a girl, that she would be able to control him like that. Anyway, Jerome charged at Terra, who stood his ground and blocked Jerome's attack. The recoil knocked Jerome back two meters.

"…" Jerome's jaw dropped. "Wh-wh-what?"

Terra smirked. "Are you surprised?"

Lowering his keyblade, Jerome nodded. He was quiet. So Aqua said, "Keep fighting. Winner gets a kiss!"

Terra's entire face lit up with glee. He shouted, "Then I'm definitely going to win this!" He rushed toward Jerome. But, Terra was still slow, so Jerome was able to dodge. He reversed and smashed Terra on the back with his keyblade. Terra fell forward into a forward somersault and jumped into the air. He slammed his blade on the ground, barely missing Jerome. The tremor caused by the attacked caused Jerome to stumble. Quickly, he dodged out of the way of Terra's next attack. "Thunder!" Jerome shouted. Thunder struck Terra. But Terra shook it off. He rushed toward Jerome.

The two exchanged blows. Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

Jerome was impressed! Terra had improved…

But did that mean Jerome was still on the same level? Had Jerome not improved at all? Clang! Clang! Clang!

Why was he here if he wasn't improving? Why was he training day and night, endlessly?

Clang!

Jerome had a destiny to fulfil! Why was he losing to Terra?

Clang!

Terra knocked Jerome's keyblade out of his hand. Panting, on his knees, Jerome was silent. Terra, however was thrilled. "A kiss for the winner?" he said.

"You didn't win yet," Aqua said, drawing her keyblade. "You still have to fight me."

Terra slumped forward in disappointment. "What? No fair!"

Aqua ran toward him and starting fighting. Jerome sat up and watched. Aqua moved with such grace. She spun around, twirling her keyblade as if it was an extension of herself. "Fire!" she said, throwing fireballs at Terra. He blocked it and retorted, "Aero!" to push her back.

Jerome realized that these two had grown leaps and bounds in the several months that they had been here. And it evoked jealousy in his heart. Clutching his chest, he took a deep breath and tried to battle those negative emotions welling up within him.

That's when Aqua slashed Terra on the back with her keyblade. He tumbled in the dirt and laid face down. Aqua, still in fighting stance, taunted him, "Had enough?"

Terra groaned.

"That makes me the winner," Aqua said.

From a distance, the three could hear clapping. They were surprised to see none other than Master Eraqus approach them. "I see that you three are training together. Very good. Consistent training is the key to success." He drew his own keyblade. "Would you care to fight me, Aqua?"

"Sure," she replied.

The two assumed fighting stances. They circled each other. Aqua moved first. She swung her keyblade at Master. He backflipped out of the way. She too, jumped backward. Keeping her guard up, she once again started to circle the Master, but he stood in place.

She ran toward him. He parried her strike. With a single combo, he laid her out on the floor.

"Ow," she grumbled.

Master Eraqus said, "Remember Aqua, though you are talented, you still have much to learn before you become a master."

She sat up. "Of course." With a smirk on his face, Master Eraqus helped Aqua stand up. "Now, what was this about a kiss for the winner?"

Aqua, startled, took a giant step backward. She looked to Terra and Jerome. Terra's face was cringed in disgust. Jerome, too, raised an eyebrow as well. Master Eraqus cleared his throat. "A joke. I'm joking," he said.

Aqua didn't seem to believe him. She backed away further and stood beside Terra. Therefore, Master changed the subject, "So, everyone is making very good progress. I believe that within three years' time, each of you will be ready to take the mark of mastery exam."

"T-three years?" Jerome stuttered.

Master Eraqus nodded, saying, "Mastering the keyblade is a long journey."

Jerome ran his hands through his silver hair and began pacing in a circle. "I feel like I haven't learned anything! I practice and practice and practice, yet I'm the weakest student."

Master Eraqus laughed at that notion. "No, my weakest student is definitely Terra."

"I don't understand why you hate me," mumbled Terra, who was offended. Like, really, really offended.

"Didn't you just see me lose to Terra?" Jerome asked.

"No," the Master said. "What I saw was you giving up halfway through the battle, because you were surprised by Terra's improvement. Yes, Terra has grown very much, and frankly I am shocked as well. Yet I am proud of him for that. And I am proud for the strides that you have made, Jerome."

"What strides?"

"It is said that we are blind to our own greatness." Master's gaze intensified on Jerome. "Jerome, you must have confidence in yourself and your own growth. Comparison is the enemy of improvement. If you must compare yourself to someone, compare yourself to the Jerome that first arrived here six months ago. Was that Jerome capable of such quick movements, rapid thinking, magic, endurance and stamina? Six months ago could you have relied on team members to help you train? Six months ago, were you this unsure of yourself?"

Jerome kept silent.

Master shook his head. "Listen, if you tell yourself that you have not improved, then you speak those words into truth. You will lose your confidence and undo all of the progress you have made. I can see that your heart is struggling. I hope you win the overcome the darkness building up inside you."

Jerome lowered his head, and clenched his hand into a fist. "No, I can't have darkness in my heart..." He marched away. Aqua turned to follow him, but Master Eraqus placed a hand on her shoulder to hold her back. "No," he said, "allow him some time to meditate."

Aqua quickly took his hand off of her shoulder, clung to Terra, and said, "Terra, you still want to go to the movies?"

"Sure," Terra replied, quickly guiding her away.

Master Eraqus mumbled, "I was just joking about the kiss…"


	14. Pen Palls

As part of her chores to do for this day, Aqua went to the post office to pick up Master's mail. On the way back, she complained, "You think he'd have a mailbox at his place." She flipped through the envelopes addressed to her master. "Bill, bill, bill, disability check? Ooo. Bill. Letter from a pen pal? Xe… Xhe… Xehanort? That's such a weird name." She opened it and glanced over it. "Oh, this is one of Master's keyblade master friends." She put the letter back in the envelope. She arrived home, made her way to Master Eraqus's office and handed him the mail.

"Mail call," she said.

"Thank you," he told her.

She walked away quickly, so that he wouldn't notice that she had opened one of his letters. Master himself then flipped through his mail. "Bill, bill, bill, disability check, bill, a letter from Xehanort? Why is it open?" He frowned. "Ever since Aqua started picking up my mail, something is always open…" Master hit himself on the forehead because he realized, "She might be opening my mail. I need to confront her about that." Nonetheless, he read the letter from Xehanort.

 _Eraqus,_

 _A long time ago, I lent you a book by the name of_ A Pure Heart: The Search for Hearts Full of Light, _by Master Yen Sid_. _I need it back. Deliver it promptly to me._

 _-Master Xehanort_

"He always has been impersonal and frank," Eraqus complained. Regardless, he looked through his bookshelves until he found the book. "It is a good thing that my students organized my office, or else I would never have found this book." Out of curiosity, Eraqus browsed through it. It was a thick book, heavy with text, and dotted with a few images. Eraqus read aloud, "Everyone has darkness in their hearts, save for the purest of hearts. Everyone has light in their hearts, save for the darkest of hearts. There must be balance, for a heart full of light is as dangerous as a heart full of darkness. For if they come together to battle, a keyblade of unspeakable evil could be forged."

Eraqus stared at the book. "Is this fool dabbling in these foolish experiments again?" Sitting down, he took a pen from his desk and began writing a letter in reply.

 _Master Xehanort,_

 _My dear friend, here is the book as you requested. However, I must wonder, for what purpose do you need this book? The content of its pages are quite interesting._

 _Also, I must ask, how are you faring with that student of yours? I am sure that he is flourishing under your guidance. I have taken three students under my own wing. Perhaps eventually we could meet to have a joint training session. I foresee that such an endeavor would benefit all parties involved._

 _I hope you are taking care of yourself. Please do not give into the darkness that once overwhelmed your heart. I too, struggle with darkness, but as a Master of the keyblade, I strive to never give in to it. Still, sometimes my heart is challenged. For instance, one of my students is a beautiful young lady. Sometimes I catch myself admiring her beauty in a way a master should never do to his student. Furthermore, a way that no grown man should a young girl. The other day, she was teasing her fellow students, saying that whoever won a sparring match would receive a kiss from her. Foolishly, I jumped into the battle, hoping to be the winner of that kiss._

 _Hearts are led astray so quickly, Xehanort. Yet, I will never forgive myself if I hurt one of my precious students. And that is how I control my own darkness. All that being said, I await your prompt response._

 _-Respectfully, Master Eraqus_

He signed and sealed the letter in an envelope, and taped it to the book. Then he walked down the hall, toward the living room area. There he saw Aqua and Terra sitting on the sofa, watching television. "Aqua," he said, "I need you to deliver something for me."

"Again?" she whined, as she stood up. Suddenly, Master remembered that she had a tendency to open his mail. So he changed his mind. "Actually, no, maybe Terra should…" And Master remembered that Terra was pretty much Aqua's henchman. "You know what, I'll find Jerome." Jerome was the only one he could trust right now.

He found Jerome in the practice field, working on his confirmed combos. "Jerome!" Master called out.

"Yes!" Jerome said.

"I have a task for you."

"Another chore?" he grumbled.

"No, no, it is not a chore," Eraqus lied. "It is a test of your inner strength and integrity. I am sharing some crucial information with a colleague of mine. I want you to deliver this book to the post office without looking at the letter attached to it. Do you understand?"

"What sort of crucial information?"

"That is none your concern, Jerome." Master handed the book to his student.

"Is it information about gaining power?"

Master Eraqus frowned. "Stop asking questions, Jerome. Do as you are told."

"So it is?" exclaimed a wide-eyed, Jerome. "No. You can't give me such a dangerous task."

"Yes I can. I trust in you."

Master Eraqus walked away. Jerome read the title of the book aloud, "A Pure Heart: The Search for Hearts Full of Light." Confused, the young man mumbled, "What is this?" He flipped through the pages of the book, and happened to stop on a page with a picture of an elegant keyblade. Jerome read aloud, "The chi-blade is the most powerful keyblade of all. Its power can unlock Kingdom Hearts, the heart of all worlds—indeed the heart of the universe. It is a source of ultimate wisdom and power…"

Jerome froze. Turning the book over, he stared at the letter attached to it. "What did Master Eraqus write in this letter? Is it about this Kingdom Hearts?" Jerome closed his eyes. "Master, what sort of training is this? You're tempting me with this sort of knowledge… is it because you sensed darkness in my heart?"

Jerome knelt down and thought about it. "Master expects me to make this delivery without opening the letter. I can't let Master down… But he has let me down! I haven't grown stronger! I can't go back to Ivalice and defeat my father! And what if Master isn't even capable of teaching me? Maybe I need the information in this letter." He clutched the book to his chest. "But what if it is all a trick? Surely he wouldn't seriously put such dangerous information in my hands. For all I know, this could just be a letter to his friend. And this is probably a chore. And he's probably laughing at me in his office." He pouted. "That thought makes me want to open it and read his business…"

Jerome sat silently for a while, gazing at the letter attached to the book. "Am I the only one serious about training to earn the Mark of Mastery? Aqua and Terra are inside watching television and I'm here struggling. But maybe… maybe they are able to take time to relax because they have more natural talent than I do. They learn quicker than me and so they need to put in less work. So maybe Master wants me to open this. Maybe he's giving me the key to catching up to their level." He leaned back onto the grass and shouted, "But he told me not to open it!"

The young man purposely hit himself on the forehead with the book. "Stop overthinking this Jerome!" He demanded of himself. "Take it to the post office!" So Jerome stood up and forced his legs to carry the book to the post office. Against his better judgement, he handed it to the post office clerk. And, full of regret, he returned home.

Emotionally exhausted, he couldn't find the strength to continue training. Instead, he went to the living room and sat down on the reclining arm chair. His fellow students were still sitting on the sofa, watching television. Terra was sprawled out horizontally, resting his head in Aqua's lap. He had a bowl of popcorn on his chest that both he and Aqua were sharing.

Jerome looked at the television. It showed a man holding another man at gunpoint. The man with the gun said, "This is what you get for killing my wife," and pulled the trigger.

"What are you watching?" Jerome asked.

Terra responded, "Death Vendetta Vengeance 2. There's a movie marathon today so they're showing all five movies in a row."

"This one is the best in my opinion," Aqua said as she ate a handful of popcorn.

Jerome raised an eyebrow. "So this is how you two decided to waste your day?"

They nodded. Terra added, "Sometimes you need to waste a day to remind yourself of how precious each day is."

Jerome stared at Terra. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, sometimes you don't notice how much time is in a day until you've sat around for the entirety of it, you know?"

Lowering his head, and closing his eyes, Jerome thought about it. "So you waste time to learn how to appreciate it, huh?"

Before he knew it, Jerome fell asleep.

He awoke in a dark, empty place. "Hello?" he called out. "Hello?" He heard laughter. He turned around. "Hello?" He saw them. Aqua, Terra and Master Eraqus. They were laughing at him. "Pathetic. He's so pathetic," said Aqua.

"You're my weakest student," said Master Eraqus.

"You'll never fulfil your destiny," Terra said.

Jerome started to tremble. They walked closer to him. "Jerry is pathetic," said Aqua.

"Weakest. Weakest," said Master Eraqus.

"Destiny," said Terra.

Jerome was too terrified to run. They grabbed him and began to smother him with a dark essence.

Jerome awoke with a start. The television was still running, but Aqua and Terra were both asleep. Jerome looked up at the clock. It was 3am. He stood up and sighed. He said to himself, "I'll give it another six months…"


	15. Life Lessons

"Master, you have mail," said Ventus as he entered Master Xehanort's study.

"Good, good," said Xehanort. He took the book from Ven. "Ah, Eraqus was prompt in his delivery. Interesting. That man is as unorganized as the sun is bright." He noticed the letter attached to the book. "He wrote me back?" Xehanort handed the letter to Ven. "Read it to me, Ventus."

Ven did as he was told. Xehanort smirked. "Interesting… Three students?" He emitted a malicious chortle. "See, boy, how easily weak hearts are led astray? Many a man stronger than that fool Eraqus have been led astray by women. A woman is a man's downfall. They are terrible, disgusting, vile creatures. They care only for themselves and nothing more. Don't ever forget that."

"Yes Master," Ven said, as he internalized his master's misogyny.

"Also, remember, it is good to know people that are easy to control. Take, for instance, this fool Eraqus. He is a very forgiving person. He believes that I am his friend. He will do anything I ask without hesitation. Even though his suspicion told him to question my motives with this book, he still delivered it. Take note, my boy. It is better to let someone believe in the idea of you, rather than let them know the real you."

"Yes Master," replied Ven. "But, does that mean that you aren't his friend?"

"We are colleagues, acquaintances, sure," answered Xehanort. "But I have no friends. And neither shall you. I only have purpose. And so do you, Ventus."

"I see," Ven said. "And what is that purpose, Master?"

"You shall see soon enough," Xehanort told him. "Very soon indeed."


	16. I Have a Problem

Another six months had passed for Master Eraqus and his three students.

During practice today, Aqua did a combo in which she spun around like a ballerina. Terra's jaw dropped. "Whoa," he mumbled. Master Eraqus did the same thing. Jerome rolled his eyes. When she finished, Aqua asked, "How was that, Master?"

Master Eraqus cleared his throat. "Very good. Jerome, you're next. Show me a move that you've been working on."

Jerome nodded. He took a step back. He swung his keyblade several times, threw it above him, jumped up to catch it, and shot several fireballs below, before descending to the ground with a finishing strike. "Great," Master told him. "Terra?"

Terra swung his blade, used magnera magic, and then finished with a final blow.

"Wonderful," said Master. "Each of you have a unique style of fighting. Keep in mind that your style is what works best for your technique, personality and skill level."

"Right," they all said.

The sun was setting behind them. So Master said, "That is enough for the day. Who's turn is it to make dinner?"

Jerome and Terra pointed to Aqua. Aqua raised her hand. "Me. I hope you guys like macaroni and cheese."

So the four of them walked back to the palace. Terra asked Aqua, "So, do you need help with dinner?"

"No, Terra, I think I can handle it."

"Well if you need anything, just ask."

"Okay." She seemed a little annoyed. When they returned to the palace, Jerome and Terra went to their rooms. Master was heading toward his office, but Aqua stopped him. She said, "Hey, Master, I have a problem."

Eraqus was startled by that. For a very brief moment, he was too afraid to ask for more information, because he thought she might say something about his own behavior. Still, he asked, "What is it, Aqua?"

"It's Terra."

Eraqus exhaled with relief. Aqua kept talking, "He's really nice and all, but he's kind of clingy. I just need him to back off a little, but I don't know how to say that without hurting his feelings."

"Honesty is the best policy. Why don't you tell him the way you told me?"

"He looks at me with those puppy dog eyes and I feel bad." Her cheeks were slightly flushed. Master, slightly confused, asked, "Are you two together?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are you two a couple?"

"No."

"Does he know that?"

She stopped to think. "He should." She looked up to Master. "Why? Did you think we were a couple?"

"Or something like that," he admitted.

"Oh. Wow." Silence ensued as Aqua thought about something. Master suggested, "Maybe it's best if you set firm boundaries with Terra, because I don't think he knows that he's being overbearing."

"Yeah…"

"Is something else bothering you, Aqua?"

"I hope he doesn't think that I'm serious about him. That would be terrible. I see both Terra and Jerry as my friends. In fact, I feel like we're a family. And I don't want to ruin that."

"Aqua, you are allowed to feel however you want to feel. As long as you're honest, I am sure Terra will understand."

Aqua nodded. "Okay. Thanks Master."

"You're welcome."

She walked away. He grumbled, "If only I were forty years younger." Then he hit himself on the forehead. "No, stop it Eraqus," he demanded of himself. "The spring of youth for you has turned into the winter of solitude." So he went to his office and sat down in his chair. He happened to notice that he had circled tomorrow's date on a calendar that he kept on his desk. "Oh, would you look at that? Tomorrow will mark a year since they've become my students. Perhaps I should surprise them with a cake or go out for sushi." Leaning back in his chair, he placed his hands behind his head. "All three of them have improved so greatly in so little time. I really am proud of them."

Suddenly, there was a knock on his door. "Come in," Eraqus said.

Terra entered. He wore a faraway look on his face, as if he were deep in contemplation.

"Hello Terra. Is something wrong?"

He nodded. "Master, I have a problem."

"What is it Terra? Come have a seat." He pointed to a chair on the opposite side of his desk. Terra sat, took a deep breath, looked his master right in the eyes and said, "Master… I-I think I'm in love."

Eraqus' eyes tripled in size. That was NOT what he expected. "Why are you telling _me_?" Eraqus exclaimed.

"It's Aqua," Terra continued. "I… I have these feelings for her. Like, really, really strong feelings. And I don't know what my next step is."

"I can't… I don't… What do you want me to say?"

"Haven't you ever been in love, Master?"

Eraqus remembered back in his youth when he had fallen in love with a young woman named Trisha. He still remembered those soft blue eyes of hers, those golden-blonde locks of hair, that gentle pink-lipped smile. Unfortunately, she was the one that got away, because he had valued his quest for keyblade mastery above her. "Yes," Eraqus said solemnly. A single, solitary tear rolled down his cheek. "Trisha…" he mumbled.

"I don't think she's as serious about me as I am about her," Terra admitted.

Since Aqua had literally told Eraqus exactly that, ten minutes ago, Eraqus nodded his head.

"Why are you nodding? Do you think she's not serious about me?" And he looked at Eraqus with that adorable puppy face that Aqua had just mentioned. Eraqus realized that Terra had really pretty eyelashes. But, that was beside the point. Eraqus told his student, "I am nodding because, yes, it is unfortunate if you seriously love her and she doesn't reciprocate. But that isn't your choice to make. That's hers."

"I need to know how she feels. Should I… confess to her?"

Eraqus shook his head. "Aren't you two just friends?"

"I think we're more than friends, but I want more than whatever it is that we have now."

 _Why am I playing matchmaker?_ Eraqus wondered. _Well, maybe I can kill two birds with one stone._ "Listen, youth is a time to make difficult choices. Either you can be focused on love or you can be focused on your dreams. It is your dream to become a keyblade master, right?"

Terra nodded. "Yes, but—"

"Choose for yourself, Terra, will you follow the path that brought you here in the first place, or shall you get side-tracked and forget your dream?"

Terra sighed. "Are you saying that I shouldn't be bothering Aqua with these emotions that I'm feeling?"

"What do you think, Terra?"

Terra nodded. "You're right. She came here to master the keyblade too. We share the same dream." He smiled. "And then when we both fulfil our dreams, then, maybe, we can fall in love." Terra stood up. "I need to focus. Thank you, Master." And he left.

Eraqus exhaled with relief. "That went well. I think…" He leaned back in his chair. "Do I regret the choice I made about Trisha? I wonder where she is now." After a few more minutes, there was another knock on his door. _Not again_ , he thought as he groaned. Nonetheless, he called out, "Come in."

This time, it was Jerome. He marched in with an air of determination, as if he was ready to command an army. "Master, I have a problem."

"Yes, what is it Jerome? Have a seat. Let's talk."

Jerome sat down, clenched his fist, and pounded Master's desk. "I can't handle this feeling anymore."

"Are you in love with Aqua too?"

The confusion on Jerome's face made Master Eraqus regret saying that. Jerome responded, "N-no. Where did that question come from?"

"What feeling is it that you cannot handle then?"

"Discouragement. I feel like I am not making progress with my skills."

"Oh, seriously?"

Jerome nodded. "I'm not at the level that I want to be. No matter how much I train, how hard I work…" He closed his eyes. "That day that you told me to deliver that book without looking at your letter, I did as you said. But now I'm asking you as your student, please tell me the secret to growing stronger quickly!"

Eraqus realized that his lies had come back to haunt him. "No, Jerome, you are mistaken."

Jerome chuckled ironically. "So never was any such knowledge, was there?"

Master narrowed his eyes. He avoided the question, "You have been training and learning so much. You have improved greatly."

The teenager slammed his hands on Eraqus's desk. "Then I want to take the Mark of Mastery exam!"

"No, you're not ready."

He kept banging on the desk. "I need to see for myself that I've improved!"

"You have, Jerome. I have seen you grow from a youth with untapped potential to a youth who can harness that power for good. Your movements are faster, your reflexes are sharp, your magic skill is increasing. You only need to gain confidence and control your darkness. Then you can continue on your path to mastery."

Jerome was so angry that his face was flushing and his nostrils were flaring. The negative emotions that had been wallowing in his heart for six months began to overwhelm him. Jerome stood up and declared, "This has been a pointless waste of my life! I'm not going to be your little errand boy anymore! I've had enough of this!"

Eraqus stood up. "What do you mean?"

"I'm packing my stuff and I'm leaving! None of you are serious about mastering the keyblade!"

"Jerome, stop. Calm down. I assure you that I do care about your training. You are my student and I want nothing more than for you to achieve your dream."

"Yeah right," Jerome retorted. "All you care about is smiling at Aqua and having us do your chores."

"That is not true. I care about all of you."

Jerome, with tears in his eyes, shook his head. "I'm done with this!"

Silence.

Eraqus said, "Very well then."

Jerome's lips trembled. He marched away. Master did not run after him. Instead, he sat down at his desk and sighed. "Maybe this is for the best."

So Jerome furiously cleared out his room, packing his stuff in preparation to leave. With a huge exhale, he sat on his bed and looked at a picture that he, Aqua and Terra had taken earlier this year. It was after they had fixed the wall in Master's office together. They were all smiling. He put the picture in his bag.

Then there was a knock on his door. "Dinner's ready," Aqua said, peeking her head inside the room. She noticed that Jerome had his stuff packed up. Curiously, she asked, "Are you doing some cleaning?"

"No I'm leaving," he said.

"Are you going to the summit to train?" she complained. "You'd better eat dinner first."

"No, Aqua, I'm seriously leaving. As in, I don't want to be Eraqus' student anymore."

Aqua seemed puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"I'm better off training by myself."

"Okay…?" She turned around and shouted, "TERRA! TERRA! COME TO JERRY'S ROOM!"

Quickly, Terra barged into the room. "What, what?" he called out.

Aqua pointed to Jerome, "He said he's leaving."

Terra complained, "Are you going to the summit to train right now? At least eat dinner first."

Jerome laughed. He doubled over and laughed so hard that a few tears escaped his eyes. "No, you idiot." He wiped his tears with the back of his hand and sat down on his bed. "Aqua said the same thing." He sniffled. "I don't want to be Master's student anymore." With a sad smile, he said, "I feel like I don't measure up to you two."

Terra shook his head and sat down beside Jerome. "Measure up to us? What are you talking about? When you did that amazing combo attack during training today, I felt so jealous of you! I'm always trying to surpass you."

"But I never see you training."

Aqua admitted, "I train by myself in the middle of the night. That's how I taught myself back when I lived at home. My mom didn't want me to learn to use the keyblade, so I had to hide it. So I guess I'm used to training when no one else can see it."

Terra said, "I'm a morning person. I do my training before everyone else wakes up."

Jerome stared at them. "Oh…"

"Why didn't you just tell us that you felt this way?" Aqua asked.

"How could I? You two are obviously all lovey-dovey and I'm the third wheel."

Aqua shouted, "Not true! That's not true at all!"

Terra felt slightly offended by that.

She kept talking, "Terra is my friend. And you're my friend!" Aqua placed her hand over her chest. "In fact, we're sort of like a weird family. You and Terra are the older brothers that are opposites and don't get along. Terra spoils me because he's too nice, and you nag me because if you don't, then I'll never grow up to be responsible. And we're all working hard alongside Master Eraqus- who's sort of like a creepy grandpa- so that we can become keyblade masters. That's how I see it." Tears welled up in her eyes. "So don't go Jerry! You belong here, with us."

Jerome shook his head. "I've made my decision guys." He smiled. "I'm really happy I got to know you two."

Aqua glared at him. "I'm serious. If you leave right now, I'll hate you. Seriously."

He shrugged. "Well, then it's a sad goodbye." He walked past her and out of the door.

Aqua, stunned, blinked a few times. She then quietly sat on Jerome's bed. A few tears rolled down her cheeks. "Fine."

Terra, however, followed Jerome, while shouting, "No, Jerry don't go!"

Jerome kept walking. Terra reached out and caught the tail of his shirt. Jerome stopped. He turned around and met Terra's eyes. "It's okay, Terra. I'll find my own way. But I'll never give into the darkness. I promise." He offered his hand to Terra. "Promise me, too, that you'll never give in."

A heaving sigh escaped Terra's lips. Terra shook Jerome's hand, and pulled him into a hug. "Deal. Take care of yourself man."

"You too," responded Jerome. "And take care of Aqua." He laughed. "You two would make a good couple."

Terra nodded and smiled. Jerome let go.

So Terra watched as his friend walked down the grand stairs toward the courtyard. Master Eraqus was there, waiting. "So then this is goodbye, then, Jerome?"

Jerome nodded. "This is goodbye, Master."

Master Eraqus patted Jerome on the back. "I know that you shall fulfil your destiny. You are a talented keyblade wielder. I wish you the best of luck. Goodbye."

Jerome nodded. He raised his keyblade to open up a portal. He pressed the button to activate his armor. He tossed his blade in the air to activate his keyblade glider— something that resembled lawn chair. And he rode it into the space between worlds.


	17. Pretend It Didn't Happen

Aqua and Terra were sweeping the throne room the morning after Jerome's departure. The two were silent for a while.

"It's really quiet without Jerry's complaints," Terra mentioned.

Aqua did not reply.

"Don't be too sad. I'm still here. I'm not going anywhere."

She shrugged. Terra stopped sweeping as he pondered the possibility of confessing his feelings for her. "Seriously, though, Aqua, I'll never leave you because I—"

Master Eraqus walked in right at that moment to cut Terra off. "Hello students."

"Hello Master," Aqua replied.

"Hello," said Terra.

"Today is a bittersweet day, as if marks exactly one year since you've become my students…" He sighed. "Let's talk for a moment."

They nodded, and set their brooms down.

"No, no, keep sweeping," Eraqus instructed. "You can sweep and talk."

Terra and Aqua scowled at him. But they kept sweeping the floor. He sat on one of the chairs in the throne room and asked, "Do you think that my lessons are moving at a fast enough pace for you two?"

"Yes," Terra responded.

Aqua nodded. "Mmmhmm."

"Is there anything I could do better as a master?"

Aqua said, "Stop being creepy."

Terra said, "Stop insulting me."

In unison, they both said, "And stop with all the damn chores."

Eraqus leaned forward and rubbed his forefingers against his beard. "So you two really have no qualms against me or my teaching style? I see."

"Stop ignoring things that you don't like," Aqua demanded.

Terra said, "Actually, there's a lot of flaws with Master. From his lazy bum lifestyle to his useless explanation of keyblade skills. Sometimes I wonder how he became a keyblade master."

"Sometimes I wonder how he lived before he had students," Aqua mentioned.

"This place was dump, remember?"

"Yeah it was a health hazard."

"He probably ate convenience store food every night."

"And never picked up his mail."

"And watched a lot of hent..." Terra paused and cleared his throat. "And watched a lot of movies."

Eraqus continued to ignore their complaints. "Well if there's no criticism of me, I would like to say that I very much appreciate you two as my students. I feel as if you two have helped me grow in wisdom as much as I have helped you grow in skill. Anyway, I don't know if it would be too soon to celebrate our year together, since Jerome left last night."

Aqua shook her head. "It's not too soon. I've already forgotten about that guy."

Terra, befuddled, turned to her and said, "You were really upset last night."

"Was I?" Aqua asked, playing dumb. "No, I don't think I was."

"Yes you were. You cried."

"Hmm? No I didn't."

Terra glared at her. "Yes you did, Aqua. You were really upset at him for leaving so suddenly."

Master, however, decided to ignore Terra. "Good. Well then if no one is too upset, why don't we go out for sushi?"

Terra's jaw dropped. "Master, I just said that Aqua was upset."

Aqua nodded. "Sushi sounds fun. You like sushi, right Terra?"

Terra gaped at them.

But nonetheless, Terra accompanied Aqua and Master to get sushi at a fancy sushi place. "It's good," he said as he chomped on some makizushi. "But I still feel weird about celebrating right now. If feels as if we're celebrating that Jerry left."

"Who?" Aqua asked.

Terra sighed. "Aqua, don't pretend like you've forgotten about him. I know you're upset, but it's better to deal with bad emotions face-to-face rather than to suppress them."

Master Eraqus nodded as he ate some tamogo. "Terra is right. It is better to embrace your emotions than to lock them away."

Aqua turned to Master Eraqus and said, "I'm not locking away any emotions. If anyone is locking away emotions, I think it's Master."

Master Eraqus, startled by those words, turned to Terra and said, "Then again, Aqua doesn't need a lecture from you, Terra. I'm sure that there are some emotions that even you have locked away."

Terra blushed. He said, "Fine. I'll admit it. I'm sad about Jerry leaving, too, but I'm trying to be strong for Aqua. I got especially sad when Aqua made that analogy that we're like family. Why wouldn't I be upset that someone who was very close to me left because he was jealous of me? I feel like I should have noticed. I feel like I could have helped him. I feel like I could have prevented it. And that's what hurts the most. I'm going to miss arguing with him and training with him and trying to make him smile."

Terra paused to smile. "But I'll never forget him, because the amount of good times outweighs the bad, ten-fold. And every time I think of Jerry, I'll smile and laugh. And I'll send good thoughts his way. And I'll hope that he reaches his dreams and fulfills his destiny. And that's what friendship is."

Master said, "Wow, that was a very eloquent speech, Terra. You really do surprise me with bits of wisdom from time to time."

"Why do you say these things to me?" Terra grumbled.

Aqua emitted a sigh. "You're right, Terra," she told him. "I am upset. And I do feel sort of guilty for not being able to make him stay. But mostly, I'm upset that I didn't even say goodbye. I can't believe I told him that I'd hate him forever. That was so childish."

"It's okay Aqua. He doesn't seriously think that you'll hate him."

She lowered her head and groaned. "But why did I say that?"

"I think you seriously began to consider us as family because of the relationship you have with yours right now. Plus, it was all of a sudden. Maybe your initial reaction was to get really angry. Now that you're calm, you're thinking straight."

"I guess…" She exhaled. "I wish I could re-do that whole situation."

"It's okay to feel like that, but don't dwell on it too much. You can't change what happened. And in the end, it'll all be okay. Okay?"

Aqua smiled. "Okay. Thanks Terra."

"No problem. You can always talk to me."

She nodded.

Master Eraqus smiled. He truly was proud of both of his students. Also, the sushi was really good.

A few weeks later, Aqua and Terra were fighting on the training grounds on the summit. Aqua jumped backwards, did a series cartwheels all around him, and consistently dodged all of his attacks right in time. Terra kept lunging toward her, slamming his keyblade with all his might.

Master said, "Terra, you're too slow. And Aqua, I know you're very acrobatic, but try attacking."

Aqua replied, "I can't. He doesn't have an opening." She jumped out of the way of an attack. "And if he hits me, it's gonna hurt."

Terra suggested, "If you stop moving so much, I'll go easy on you." He slashed his keyblade at her. She rolled out of the way. "Oh really? I don't think you know how to be gentle." Terra swung his blade. She jumped over him and said, "All you have is power. No technique."

"I have a few tricks up my sleeve," he said as he rushed her. She tried to parry his strike, but he was too powerful. She fell over. Pointing his keyblade at her face, he said, "I win."

"Ugh, fine," she said. He helped her up.

Master Eraqus shook his head and remarked, "Terra, you really need to work on your speed. And Aqua, instead of looking for openings, make an opening."

"Understood," the students responded.

"Good. Now, fight again."

They assumed battle stances. While they battled each other again, Master Eraqus thought about how much faster Terra moved compared to his first day of training. He thought about how much stronger Aqua had become. Time passed by so quickly. In a matter of years, the two would achieve their mark of mastery and leave him.

And then he wouldn't have anyone to do the chores.

"That would be terrible," he mumbled, because he had gotten quite used to this sort of life. "I need another student… perhaps a young boy. Heaven knows I can barely control myself around young girls." He sighed. "When did I become like this? Or is it just Aqua that tempts me so?"

Aqua cast blizzaga magic to freeze Terra's keyblade. Coated in ice, it was twice as heavy, so Terra struggled to lift it. She ran toward him, spun around, and smacked his back with her keyblade. Terra fell down. "Grah!" he grunted.

"I win!" Aqua shouted. "Right Master?"

Eraqus hadn't been paying attention. "Hmm? Yes, yes, nice move Aqua."

"You weren't paying attention, were you?"

"Once more," Eraqus told them.

They both groaned.

That evening, Aqua and Terra were preparing chocobo soup together. He was chopping the meat. She was chopping the veggies. Terra was quiet. His gaze seemed faraway. His shoulders were tense and his lips slightly pouted.

Aqua stopped chopping. "You okay?" she asked.

"Hmm? Yeah, I'm fine."

"No you're not," she said while chopping some carrots. "You seem upset."

"I'm fine."

"Don't hide things from me. Tell me why you're upset. I want to help."

"Well I'm sort of homesick. It's been a while since I've seen my family."

"Oh."

They continued chopping.

Aqua suddenly stopped and suggested, "Why don't you go see them?"

"Huh?"

"Go see your family, Terra," she told him. "Why not?"

"I guess I could take a few days off and go home." He put the meat in the soup pot. Then he started adding spices. "Yeah. I should talk to Master about it."

"Yeah. But you'll come back here, right? Don't leave me alone with Master Pervert for too long."

"Of course I'll come back," Terra told her with a chuckle.

"Good. Because I'll miss you." She smiled at him. Her entire face seemed to glow with an angelic aura. Terra thought that she looked so cute.

He gently placed a kiss on her lips.

Her eyes widened. She took a step back.

His eyes widened. He took a step back.

They stared at each other.

Aqua laughed awkwardly, and continued chopping the vegetables. Terra touched his lips. "S-s-sorry. I completely misread the atmosphere."

"Hmm? What do you mean?" asked Aqua.

"I shouldn't have kissed you. Sorry."

"What? What are you talking about?" Aqua said, trying to laugh it off. "That didn't happen."

"Aqua, for real, I'm sorry."

"Haha…" She finished chopping the veggies. "The meat smells good."

"Don't do that thing where you ignore it."

"Tell me when to add the vegetables."

"Aqua, I'm serious."

She stared at the soup.

"I really like you Aqua…" Terra admitted. "And I want to know how you feel about me."

She continued to stare at the soup. But he could see that she was trembling.

"This doesn't need to be awkward Aqua…."

"I'm going to add the veggies," she said.

He sighed.

As a result, dinner time was super awkward. Master Eraqus ate his food while saying, "This is good."

"It's a family recipe," Aqua said. She looked to Terra. Terra was quiet, forlorn, staring tensely at his soup. She kept talking, "Terra's family recipe."

Terra still said nothing. Aqua rambled on, "His mom is a really good cook. She's the one that taught him to cook. Haha, Terra would make a great housewife."

Terra kept quiet. Master Eraqus noticed. "Is something wrong Terra?"

The young man looked up from his soup. He glanced at Aqua. Then he admitted, "I'm homesick."

Master Eraqus replied, "Oh, then you should go home for a little while."

"That sounds like a good idea. I'll go tomorrow."

Master Eraqus concluded, "Good. I'm glad that's settled then. It's annoying to see you sulking. You look stupid."

Terra opened his mouth, as if to make a rude reply, but he decided against it.


	18. Rio Grande

Early the next morning, Master and Aqua watched from atop the stairs as Terra stood in the courtyard. He activated his keyblade armor. Standing tall, he pointed his keyblade into the air to open up a portal. With a mighty hurl, he pitched his keyblade into the air. It returned to him in the shape of a motorbike. He hopped on, and rode off into the space between realms. Aqua exhaled with relief.

Master Eraqus placed a hand on Aqua's shoulder. "I suppose it'll be just us for a little while."

Aqua took a giant step backward. "Yes, that's true. I'm going to go… do... something…" And she hurried off.

Master Eraqus, with a single tear in his eye, and a severe face, said to himself, "She knows that I'm a pervert sensei." He shook his head. "No. I must prove to my student that I am a man of integrity. Because I am."

A cold wind suddenly blew.

"Or I once was…"

Later that day, Aqua and Master Eraqus were in the throne room, practicing their battle skills. Aqua back-flipped away as Master Eraqus swung his keyblade. "Very good Aqua. But, can you dodge this?" He shot fire magic at her as he shouted out, "Fireragaragaraga!"

Aqua quickly ran out of the way, while shouting, "That's not even a form of fire magic!" Today she was wearing an oversized T-shirt and shorts. Unfortunately, the back of her shirt caught on fire. "Eek!" she shouted as she stopped, dropped and rolled. Once she was not on fire, she sat up and gave Master the evil eye. "You did that on purpose."

"We're sparring, aren't we Aqua?" he told her as he offered her a hand. "And as your master, I cannot go too easy on you."

Aqua refused to take his hand. She stood up, dusted herself off and said, "Now my shirt is ruined." So she took it off. Of course, she was wearing a sports bra underneath.

Yet, Master Eraqus stared at her. She noticed, and stared at him. She put on the charred shirt once again. "I'll go change," she said.

The Master quickly said, "Actually, that's enough training for today. Why don't you take the rest of the day off?"

She nodded, "Yes," and quickly walked away.

Suddenly free for the rest of the day, Aqua decided to pick up a shift at McRonalds. (Yes, she still worked there, because their hours were incredibly flexible.) It started as a regular shift, with the typical indecisive customers, the picky eaters, and the rude people.

Aqua had just finished dealing with a man that was super angry at the rate of inflation. "A single burger for 500 munny?" he had said, "You've gotta be kidding me!" Of course she smiled her customer service smile throughout the whole ordeal. Just as she was thinking that she couldn't handle another rude customer, she heard a familiar voice call her name.

"Aqua?" He was a tall young man, in his early twenties. He had fair skin, and his short, blonde, wavy hair was brushed backwards, out of his face. His eyes were blue. His frame was slender, and he wore a black formal business suit.

"Yes, that's my name," Aqua said, pointing to her name tag. "What can I get for you, sir?"

"You cut your hair! Why did you cut your beautiful hair? It was so long!" He reached out to touch her face.

She dodged his hand, and repeated, "What can I get for you, sir?"

"I almost didn't recognize you! Why are you here?"

"Would you like to place an order?"

"Is this what you've been doing since you left home?"

Aqua clenched her hands into fists. "May I interest you in some black pepper fries?"

"Aqua, I can't believe it. I haven't seen you in over a year." Tears formed in his eyes. "Why are you acting like this?"

"Sir if you are having trouble deciding, please step out of line and allow someone else to order first."

He shook his head. "You're still as stubborn as ever, huh Sis? Okay then, I'll play along. I'll have a grilled chocobo sandwhich combo meal, with iced sweet tea."

"Coming right up sir."

Several minutes later, Aqua brought the food to the table where he was sitting. Then she sat down across from him. "What do you want, Rio?"

He took a sip of his sweet tea. "Call me Big Bro, like you used too." He chuckled and tried to mock the voice of a little girl. "Big Bro, take me to the movies! Big Bro, can I sleep in your bed? Big Bro, take me to boarding school with you! I don't want you to leave me!" He smiled.

"Shut up _Rio_ ," she emphasized.

"That's no way to treat me," he reached out to ruffle her hair. "I've missed you Aqua. I was really worried about you. Like, really, really worried."

She shrugged. "Lies."

"I'm serious! I know we've drifted apart since we were little kids, but how could I not be worried when my beloved little sister suddenly runs away from home? I didn't know if you were safe! But I knew you were smart and tough so I hoped that you were able to take care of yourself. I've just been hoping for the best for a long while, Aqua. You honestly don't know how happy I am to finally see you."

She faced the table to avoid meeting his gaze. "I don't have all day. Tell me why you're here."

He sighed. "We've just finished construction on the new potion factory here, so I came for the final inspection and ribbon cutting ceremony."

"Oh. Business as usual, I see." She stood up to leave. He quickly seized her hand and pulled her toward him. With an irritated look, he asked, "Aqua, you need to come home."

"No." Her eyes were alight with obstinacy.

"What are you even doing here? Why are you working menial labor? You're a proud member of the D'Vitae family. Don't you feel ashamed?"

She snatched her hand away and sat down again. "I don't associate myself with that family anymore."

He pounded the table with both hands and yelled, "Don't say that!" His outburst attracted the attention of some other McRonalds customers. Rio took a moment to calm himself. Then he spoke in a normal tone of voice. "You need to come home."

"Why now? You could have taken me home a long time ago."

"No I couldn't. At first, I didn't even know that you ran away. And when Mother finally told me, I wanted to go look for you. But Mother forbade it. She didn't want to cause an uproar or let anyone know that you went missing. She told me that you would get tired of being a runaway after a few months, and come back. When you didn't, she told me to forget about you. She burned all of your things and cleared out your room. She's trying to erase you from her heart. I've been trying to help her cope, but… Aqua, you really should come home, before every memory of you that she has fades away."

Aqua tried to shrug the news away. "I'm never going home. So she can forget me. And you can too." Yet her voice and body were shaking.

"I'll never forget my sister," he told her as he reached out to stroke her cheek. "And I want us to be a family again."

"You don't mean that," Aqua grumbled as she avoided eye contact with her brother. "I should get back to work."

"I do mean it, Sis! I don't know what you're trying to prove, but it's pointless. Stop being ridiculous and come home. I'll forgive you. And even if Mother doesn't forgive you, I'll take care of you."

She crossed her arms. "I can take care of myself."

"Don't be silly," Rio said as he fiddled with the straw of his drink. "You're coming with me as soon as I finish this meal."

Aqua started to breathe quickly. "No. I'm happy here."

Rio took a bite of his burger. A brief silence followed as he chewed and swallowed. "I'll give you until tomorrow, then. Meet us at the ribbon cutting ceremony. Mom will be there too, and we will **all** ," he emphasized, "be leaving shortly afterwards, so do be there on time."

He ate some more of his black pepper fries. Aqua shook her head. She sprung up from her seat and rushed toward the front door. Her manager yelled, "Aqua? Where are you going?"

"I'm taking my smoke break!" she shouted. She left the restaurant. Rio frowned as he took another bite of his burger.

Eventually, Aqua needed to return to work. Luckily Rio had left. But he hadn't even bothered to throw his trash away. Aqua rolled her eyes as she cleaned up the table where he had been sitting. She saw that he had left a note. It said, "Aqua, you and I both know that you need to come home. XOXO Rio D.V."

She crumpled it up.


	19. Postive Feedback Loop

Upon finishing work, Aqua returned home to Master Eraqus's Palace, where she locked herself up in her room and laid down on her bed. With a huge sigh, she stared upward at her ceiling. After half an hour of quiet contemplation, she sat up, took out her phone and opened up her PhotoChat app. PhotoChat allowed the user to send pictures and brief videos along with a short caption to anyone that was their friend on the app. (Basically it's their universe's version of SnapChat.)

Aqua checked to see if Terra had sent anything. He had. She tapped the screen of her phone to scroll through the pictures of Terra back at his parent's house. There was a picture of his mother cooking lunch, with the caption, "Nothing beats Mom's omurice." She was a short woman, especially compared to Terra. She wore a pale pink komon kimono. She had a bronzed complexion, and her light brown hair was pulled back into a bun. Her thin eyes were bright blue and she had the prettiest eyelashes that Aqua had ever seen. "That's where he gets it from," Aqua said to herself.

The next picture was of Terra playing chess with his dad. Terra's father was a tall, brown-skinned man who wore his long black hair pulled back into a single braid. The older man had a muscular frame, just like Terra. He had a short beard, which he rubbed intensely. His dark brown eyes were fixed on the chess board. Terra's dad was dressed in a simple black t-shirt that said, "My Son Bought this for Me," and khaki brown cargo shorts.

In the same picture, Terra wore a grey t-shirt that said, "Daddy's Little Angel," and navy blue basketball shorts. The caption said, "Mom took a picture of me beating Dad at chess." But Aqua could tell, just by a quick glance at the chess board, that Terra was about to lose.

The next picture was a group selfie of Terra and some of his old friends. It said, "Me and the crew, reunited." The final picture was a selfie of Terra holding a cute little Labrador Retriever puppy. The caption for that one said, "My parents adopted a puppy." Of course he added a dog emoji.

"Aw he looks just like that puppy," Aqua said to herself. For a while, she admired the picture. "I think I want a puppy too." With a smile, she stood up and said, "I guess I'll get dinner started then. Maybe I'll make omurice…"

Later that evening, Aqua and Master Eraqus sat at the dining table, quietly eating dinner. "Good job Aqua," he told her. "It's good."

"Thanks," she replied.

"So, what did you do today?"

"I went to work," she answered.

"Work?"

"Yeah."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I went to work. What else could I possibly mean?"

Master Eraqus seemed very puzzled. "Work? Where do you work?"

Aqua was taken aback by that question. "I work at McRonalds. I've been working at McRonalds for a while now."

"Really?"

"Yeah. You didn't know?"

"You didn't tell me."

"I didn't?"

"No."

"Oh. Yeah. I work at McRonalds."

"Why?"

"Because I want munny," she told him, as if that was an obvious answer.

"Yes. Of course." He didn't pry further.

The two were silent for a while. Then Master Eraqus said, "Just to let you know, Aqua, if you ever feel homesick, feel free to take a few days off as well. As long as someone is here to do the chores, I'm fine with it."

Aqua scowled. "Alright then."

Eraqus continued, "Also, we will start our training later than usual tomorrow, because I must attend a ribbon-cutting event for the new potion factory that was built recently. As guardian of this world, I should show my face at these sort of events." Aqua's she looked like she wanted to say something, but she didn't. Master Eraqus noticed. So he asked, "Would you like to come along, Aqua?"

She tensed, as if he had said something inappropriate. Accordingly, Master Eraqus thought that he had said something inappropriate. And he racked his brain to find any sort of reason as to why Aqua would be so offended by that simple question. Only one explanation popped up into his mind. So he quickly corrected himself, "Of course this is not like a date or any of that sort of thing. We are strictly master and student."

That comment left Aqua speechless, because she hadn't even slightly considered the possibility that her Master was asking her on a date. Her initial negative reaction was due to the fact that her brother and mother would be at that ribbon cutting ceremony. However, because Master had brought it up, she began to think that he had intended to ask her on a date. "Wait what? A date?" she repeated.

"Unless you want it to be a date," he replied, a bit too eagerly.

Now Aqua felt really awkward. Like, really, really awkward. And she resorted to her default defense mechanism. "Terra is the one who taught me to make omurice. Haha, I'd be useless if not for him."

Master Eraqus took the hint, and allowed the topic of conversation to change course. "Yes, Terra is quite a fine cook."

Interestingly, the following day, Aqua did accompany Master Eraqus to the ribbon-cutting ceremony. She decided that it was finally time to tie up the loose ends with her family.

It was an outdoor ceremony. Several rows of chairs were lined up in the lawn in front of the new D'Vitae Potion Factory in the industrial section of the town. A giant blue ribbon was tied between the door frames of the building and a massive bunch of flower arrangements were placed on either side. A microphone stand was connected to speakers, located a few feet away. Ushers, dressed in formal suits, were guiding people to their seats.

"Fancy," Aqua muttered when they arrived. She and Eraqus were seated in the front row, just a short distance away from the microphone stand. Master wore his usual getup, but Aqua wore black jeans, a black shirt, and a blue cardigan tied around her waist. She felt incredibly nervous, and as a result, her body was noticeably trembling.

Of course, Master Eraqus noticed, but he debated whether or not to ask her why she looked so nervous. He silently thought, _Maybe she thinks that this is a date, so she's nervous. But it's not a date. It's just a master and his student attending a social event together. She should have no reason to be nervous. Am I making her nervous? What sort of master am I if I'm making her nervous?_ These thoughts, in turn, caused Eraqus to be nervous. And he, too, started shaking from his nervousness.

Aqua noticed that Master Eraqus was trembling, but she thought that he was trembling because he was nervous because he thought that he was on a date with her. This, on top of the initial nervousness that she felt about the confrontation that she would have with her mother and her brother, caused her to feel nauseous. Her face lost color and she started to breathe rapidly.

Upon seeing the amount of distress that Aqua was in, Master Eraqus also felt sick to his stomach. His face flushed red, and his head started to hurt. He desperately wanted to console her. So he turned to her and said, "Don't worry. Just relax."

And that was probably the worst thing that he could have said to her, because, in her mind, those words served as a confirmation that he thought that this was a date. And she was seriously appalled at the idea of being on a date with Master Eraqus. So she stood up and said, "Excuse me," because she felt like she was seriously going to throw up.

As he watched Aqua scurry away, Master Eraqus fought back the urge to cry manly tears of deep regret, for he feared that he had just traumatized this sixteen-year-old girl.

Needless to say, this miscommunication was stressful for the both of them.

Aqua found herself standing on the sidewalk a short walk away from the potion factory. She tried to take a few deep breaths to calm herself. Then she paced back and forth as she pondered her situation. She covered her face. "This day can't get any worse."

It was in that exact moment of despair that Aqua's cell phone beeped. Eager to distract herself from her thoughts, she looked at her phone messages. Terra had sent her a picture of his parents' puppy asleep on the floor. The little thing was lying on its back with its tongue hanging out of its mouth and legs stretched out. The caption was, "Do you think Master will let us adopt a puppy?"

Maybe it was because Aqua really needed this sudden burst of positivity that she burst into a fit of laughter. She replied to his message, "We already have one." And she smiled at the picture while thinking aloud, "Terra is such a puppy. But he's an earnest puppy that chases after his dreams wholeheartedly."

Suddenly, she had an epiphany. "Terra and I share the same dream. And I want to reach that dream alongside him. So if that means defying Mom and Rio, then that's what I'm going to do." A wave of relief flooded over her. Standing up, she held her head high and shouted, "I'm going to follow my dream because it's my life and I can do whatever I want!"

Some startled random passer-bys did a double take at her. But she didn't care. She felt a sudden burst of energy. A proud smile formed across her lips as she placed both hands over her heart. "I won't let anyone control me. I don't belong to anyone. I'm Aqua D'Vitae and I'm going to forge a destiny of my own. Though the darkness of uncertainty lurks around the future, I'll follow the path illuminated by the bright light of my dreams." She glanced at her phone. "Thanks Terra."

She noticed that Terra had replied to her message, saying, "What do you mean? Did you adopt a puppy?!"

She chuckled and replied, "Just kidding."


	20. A Bunch of Boring Speeches

Aqua returned to her seat beside Master Eraqus in a much more composed manner. Master was quite surprised that her entire aura had completely changed. But he didn't want to ask her about it, for fear of provoking something else that would upset her. Silently, he thought, _Maybe I was overthinking this whole situation. Yeah, I'm being ridiculous._ So he calmed down right in time for the ribbon cutting ceremony to begin.

Aqua's older brother arrived with an entourage of investors, town officials and building managers. They gathered in front of the building. Local journalists took photos and a TV crew began to film the event. Rio stood in front of the mic and tapped it. He blew into it. "Is this thing on?" he asked.

Yes, the microphone was definitely working fine. But Rio continued to say, "Testing, testing, one, two, three. Hello? I'm not sure that this is on. Can someone come check this microphone?"

One of the business partners said, "I think it's on Mr. D'Vitae."

"Oh, is it? Hello?" Rio tapped the mic once more. "Oh, yes, I think it's on. Thanks." He cleared his throat and adjusted his tie. "Hello, and welcome citizens of the Land of Departure. My name is Mogorio D'Vitae, Vice President of the D'Vitae Group. We specialize in the manufacture and distribution of battle supplies, such as potions, orbs, magic recipes, and _et cetera_. You can find our top quality items everywhere, from your local moogle shop to your high end weaponry retailers. Not only do we care about the quality and affordability of our products, but we care about the work environment and career satisfaction of all of our employees. In fact, my late father—bless his departed soul—always said this one phrase…"

"Do everything you do with love and passion," he said aloud, as Aqua mumbled the same thing under her breath.

Rio wasn't finished talking, "He said that if our employees weren't happy working for us, then no matter the profit margin, we've failed as a business. He said that a business is a living thing, and that all living things must contribute to the ecosystem in some way. For D'Vitae industries, that means providing high-quality items, as well as job opportunities, and philanthropic events. Here to speak a little more about D'Vitae industry's philanthropy, I'll give the microphone to my mother. Please give a round of applause for the President and CEO of D'Vitae industries, Patrisha D'Vitae."

Master Eraqus nearly jumped out of his seat. "T-trisha?" he repeated.

Trisha D'Vitae was a tall woman, and that was only accentuated by the very high black high-heels that she was wearing. Her hair was long, platinum blonde, and wavy. She pinned it back into an Audrey Hepburn style updo. She wore a navy blue skirt suit, a necklace of pearls and a giant sapphire ring on her left ring finger. Her earrings were diamond studs. Her eyes were blue, her lips were red and her makeup was flawless.

"Good morning everyone," she began. She scoped out the audience. Her eyes met with Master Eraqus's eyes. She chuckled smugly. Then her eyes met with Aqua's. Her composure dropped. "A-aqua?"

Aqua made a slightly embarrassed face and tried to turn away. Trisha too, slightly blushed. She cleared her throat. She continued her speech. "As my son said, at D'Vitae industries, we pride ourselves on giving back to the community. We understand that the community provides both the workforce and revenue that keeps our company alive. We exist because of you. So of course we love to thank the community."

Aqua stopped paying attention. She began to practice in her mind how she would tell her brother that she wasn't going to come home with them. And she also started to practice show she would tell Master Eraqus that the woman that he had been in love with years ago was her mother.

She had realized this a couple of months after becoming Eraqus's student. The day that she, Terra and Jerome were cleaning out the attic, Aqua had found a picture of Master Eraqus with a woman who looked very similar to her mother. Finding this as a quirky coincidence, Aqua wanted to keep the picture. Then she had read Master's journal. What were the chances that the woman who looked like her mother would also have the same name as her mother? She had taken the journal from the attic and kept reading it. That is how Aqua found out that, long ago, her mother had been a keyblade apprentice alongside Master Eraqus and whoever that weird Xehanort fellow was. But Aqua had kept that information to herself.

The ribbon cutting ceremony concluded with Rio snipping the ribbon to the entrance of the factory. There was a round of polite applause. Rio said, "Thank you, once again, for celebrating the opening of this new factory with us. Please, enjoy some hors d'oeuvres," as he gestured to a row of tables that had been set up with light refreshments.

So the crowd headed toward the food. Rio shot a glare at Aqua. Aqua shot a glare at him and remained in her seat. Eraqus stood up. He approached Miss D'Vitae. "Trisha, hello," he said.

She completely ignored him, turned to Rio and said, "Rio we need to be in Agrabah for our partnership meeting within the next hour."

Rio said, "Don't worry Mother, I've arranged for transportation."

"Shall we be off then?"

"Aren't we forgetting something?"

Trisha looked around. "Hmm? Not that I can think of."

Rio pointed to Aqua. "My sister. Your daughter."

The woman puckered her lips and tapped her chin. "A daughter? I don't have a daughter."

Aqua hadn't expected those words to hurt so much. Rio, equally hurt, said to his mother, "Mother, stop being ridiculous!" He turned to Aqua. "And Aqua, you must stop being ridiculous as well! We're leaving. Let's go."

Eraqus turned to Aqua and exclaimed, "She's your mother?"

Trisha, very much alarmed, turned to him and said, "Wait, how do _you_ know Aqua?"

Eraqus answered, "I'm training her to become a keyblade master. She's my student."

Trisha was absolutely appalled. "What?" She shook her head. "You? You're useless! You couldn't teach a fly to fly."

"Yet I'm the one with the Mark of Mastery," he retorted.

Trisha shot him a murderous look. To Rio, she said, "We're going to be late for our meeting if we don't hurry up."

Rio seized Aqua's hand. "I'm not leaving without Aqua."

Aqua ripped away from his grasp. "But I'm not going with you."

Rio grabbed her hand once more. "No! You are coming home right now! Enough of this nonsense!"

She pulled away once more. "Stop it! Let me go! You're not my mother!" She pointed to her mother. "She is! And she doesn't want me!"

Trisha rolled her eyes. "If I had a daughter, she wouldn't be consorting with old men. For all I care, this little bitch can rot wherever she wants."

Aqua bit her bottom lip. He breathed as if she was about to cry. "Mom…"

"This is absolutely fucking ridiculous!" Rio shouted. The frustration in his voice was audible. "I can't take this anymore!" He blinked back tears. "Am I the only one who cares about this family? Dad wouldn't have wanted this!" He reached for Aqua's hand again. She jumped back and drew her keyblade. She assumed a fighting stance as she declared, "Touch me again and I'll fight you!"

Now they were officially causing a scene. And the publicity-minded members of the D'Vitae family realized that they probably should not be handling their private business in front of their newly inaugurated potion factory. Accordingly, they gave in. Trisha asked, "Eraqus, do you still live in that palace in the mountains?"

Eraqus nodded. Mrs. D'Vitae glanced at her watch. She then took out her cellphone and made a call. "Hi, Jessica, can you go ahead and cancel our 11 o'clock with Arish in Agrabah? Something came up at the potion factory ribbon cutting ceremony and our hands are tied at the moment. Mmmh. Yeah. Thanks." She hung up. Then she snapped her fingers at Eraqus. "Let's go."


	21. Mama Knows Best

The older D'Vitaes and Master Eraqus sat in a living room at his palace. Aqua made tea and brought it in. Trisha said, "Student? You're more like a slave Aqua."

Aqua glared at her mother.

"Don't make that face. It looks ugly. And you can't afford to look any uglier." The woman shook her head in disbelief. "You used to be so pretty. You've really let yourself deteriorate. The face. The clothes. The terrible haircut. Have you been cutting it yourself? Sweetie if you can't even afford a decent haircut, are you really living like a human being? And your skin used to be so white. Now it's all sunburnt and splotchy. And you've put on weight, haven't you? If you returned home, no one would recognize you. You might as well stay here."

Aqua covered her mouth with her hands to keep from screaming expletives. Master Eraqus jumped in to her defense. "How rude!" he declared. "If you came here just to spout insults, you can leave."

Trisha scoffed. "And you, can't you afford a maid? This place is a dump. I wouldn't even let my dog sleep here."

Rio commented, "Is this how my precious little sister has been living for the past year? I'm going to cry. I'm seriously going to cry." He started crying. "I wanted to come find you, but Mother didn't let me. She sabotaged any effort I made. And you've been suffering here in this pig sty with this weird old man. I'm so sorry."

"See why I ran away from them?" Aqua told Master Eraqus.

Eraqus jumped out of his seat. "You're a runaway?!"

"You didn't know?!" she asked him, genuinely shocked (although she never told him).

Aqua's mother commented, "Eraqus is as dumb as a bag a bricks. He wouldn't know something even if you told him."

Aqua saw this as an opportunity. She asked, "Mom, how do you know my master?"

"Don't call him your master," Trisha demanded. "He doesn't deserve the title." She giggled in ironic laughter. "Why are you even living like this? Stop being stupid. Come home and I'll forgive you for this little act of rebellion. I'll find some way to explain it. And I'll fix you up all nice and pretty again." Her laughter died down into a desperate plea. She was struggling not to cry. "And we'll forget this ever happened? Okay? You'll go back to high school and be the most elegant and respected girl. You'll go to college to study law and politics and graduate _sigma cum laude_." Trisha's voice was trembling. So was her entire body. Her eyes were wild and watery. "You'll go on to become a powerful politician and business woman and expand our company's influence all over the worlds. You'll marry a nice respectable man and have a nice respectable family. And you'll be happy. That's the plan, right?"

"No," Aqua told her. "I want to be a keyblade master so—"

"No you don't!" Trisha interrupted. "You just want to piss me off! And you want to piss me off because you don't understand that everything I do is for your best interest!"

Aqua shot back, "Everything you do is so that you can live vicariously through me! You had my whole life planned out! I don't want that life! So I chose my own, because only I know what's best for me!"

"No you don't," replied her mother, dismissively. "You're only sixteen! You don't know anything! I'm the only one who knows what is best for you." She reached out to touch Aqua. "You can't survive without me."

"But I've been living on my own for over a year. I can take care of myself."

Viciously, Trisha retorted, "Are you really taking care of yourself? You really are stupid if you don't realize what a wretched state you're in."

Aqua told her mother, "I'm not in a wretched state. In fact, I'm happy. I'm very happy that I'm learning to become a keyblade master. I'm happy that I can follow my dream."

"Then you can stay here and rot. I'm not going to drag you back home because, frankly, I don't want a daughter that is disgusting, disobedient and disrespectful. If you aren't going to do what I say, then stay here. I don't care. I'll forget about you. You'll be nothing more than a name I faintly remember. And I'm completely fine with that."

Rio jumped in, shouting, "Mom, this is insane! She's your daughter!"

Again, Aqua hadn't expected her mother's words to hurt her so badly. "I don't want that Mom. I want you to understand that—"

Trisha was firm. "No. If you want my approval of this sort of lifestyle, you won't get it."

So Aqua decided to use the last resort. "Mom, didn't you study to become a keyblade master here once?"

Trisha made an intense leer of disgust toward Eraqus. "What did you tell her?"

He said, "I told her nothing. I didn't even know that she was your daughter." He looked at Aqua. "Although now that you are side-by-side, I see the resemblance. She's your spitting image, Trisha." He gasped because he realized that was probably the reason why he was so attracted to Aqua.

Rio asked, "Mother, what does she mean?"

"Nothing."

Aqua explained, "Mom trained to be a keyblade master alongside Master Eraqus when she was my age. In this very world. In this very same place."

Trisha pounded the table in front of her. "I worked harder than this fool in front of me! I was a prodigy! Master said so! Yet he didn't award me with the Mark of Mastery! He gave it to Eraqus, and then Xehanort instead! Neither of them deserved it! I did!"

Eraqus said, "Trisha, how could you be a keyblade master when you bear so much darkness inside your heart? Back then the darkness was small, but now I see that the darkness has grown. It is so thick that it prevents you from loving your own daughter. How can a person like you use the keyblade for good?"

She stood up and pointed to Eraqus. She was livid. Her face was red. Her fingertips were trembling. She was crying. "Don't lecture me, you lazy, useless buffoon! You're a liar! You said you loved me! So why didn't you leave with me? Why did you stay here?"

Eraqus calmly looked her in the eyes and answered, "I made my choice, Trisha."

Trisha pointed to herself and, her chest shuddering with sobs, told Aqua, "After the fifth time I took the Mark of Mastery Exam and failed, I gave up. I hated the keyblade! I hated my master and Xehanort and this entire world! The only person I loved was this idiot! Yet when I told him that I wanted to have nothing more to do with this sort of life, he told me to go on without him." She shook her head so fast that her hair fell out of its updo. "He would rather stay here alone, in this sorry excuse for a castle, than be with me." She forced a prideful smile. "Well the joke is on you, Eraqus! I became a successful career woman. And the company that I've helped to create will long outlive me! What have you done?"

Eraqus answered, "I've been happy."

Trisha's skin turned ghostly white. Stunned, she sat down and looked straight ahead. She kept quiet.

A heavy silence choked everyone in the room.

After a long moment, Trisha took a deep breath, turned to Aqua, and said, "You're going to end up just like me if you keep going down this path. I know what's best for you, Aqua. Believe it or not, I want you to be happy."

Aqua shook her head. "I won't repeat your mistakes, Mom. I'm definitely going to earn the Mark of Mastery."

"No you aren't," her mother told her. "You're going to fail, and then you're going to feel empty. You're going to realize that you've wasted your youth chasing ridiculous dreams."

Aqua shook her head. "Mom you didn't waste your youth." She clasped her mother's hands in her hands. "And you eventually fulfilled your dream, right? In his journal, Master wrote that you said you wanted to use the power of the keyblade to give back to those in need. You may not have become a keyblade master, but you're achieving that dream with the charity work that you do. Doesn't that count for something? And remember how much Dad loved you?"

Rio piped in, "Bless his departed soul."

Aqua concluded, "Even though he's in heaven, I'm sure Dad still loves you. And I love you. And Rio loves you. So forget about how this lazy, useless guy," Aqua pointed to Eraqus, "broke your heart all those years ago. You've made a family that loves you. And you were happy, right?"

Trisha sniffled. "Yes. But now everything is ruined. Your dad's gone, you ran away, and Rio hates me…"

Rio piped in, "I don't hate you, Mother. I was mad that you weren't searching for Aqua, and that you were acting like the victim. But I don't hate you. I just want to fix our family. That's all I want."

Aqua added, "And we _can_ fix our family. Believe it or not, I want you to be happy Mom." Aqua hugged her mother.

Trisha returned the embrace for a long while. Finally, she slid out of Aqua's arms, took Aqua's hand and pleaded, "Aqua, please, I'm begging you. Give this up and come home."

Aqua bit her lower lip. She took a deep breath, and exhaled. She slowly shook her head. "Sorry Mom," she answered. "I'm staying here."

"Okay then," Trisha said. Letting go of Aqua's hand, she stood up and dusted herself off. "You're dead to me."

Those words tore Aqua apart. It hurt so much that she dropped to her knees. Meanwhile, Trisha fixed her hair and said, "Come on Rio, let's go."

Rio glared at his mother. "Even though I don't want her to live like this, I want my sister to be happy. I'm willing to make compromise because I don't want to split up the family. Dad wouldn't have wanted to split up the family. We are family, Mother. So please don't say that to her."

Trisha smiled at him. "Then you're dead to me too. Goodbye." And, with the click-clack sound of high-heeled shoes, she strutted away.

Rio grabbed at his chest, as if she had physically shot him with her words.

However, a serene silence filled the room this time, as if the heaviness marched away to the beat of the high-heels.

"I'm so sorry Rio," Aqua apologized.

Rio shook his head. "It's been a long time coming. I've been arguing with her for over a year because I wanted to find you and she didn't want me to find you." He chuckled. "To think that we met up at McRonalds. Destiny is weird, huh? Haha…"

Aqua could tell that he was forcing himself to be brave. She knew that their mother's rejection had devastated him. So she hugged him. "What are you going to do?" she asked.

He returned the hug, and said, "I'll give Mother some space. Maybe in time she'll calm down…" He sighed. "Aqua, I'm serious when I say that I missed you. I'm serious when I say that I was worried. Why didn't you tell me where you were?"

"I was afraid you'd try to drag me back. You always were a mama's boy. You do anything she says." She squeezed him tightly. "I'm actually shocked that you stood up for me. I'm really happy that you stood up for me."

He released her and ruffled her hair. "That's because I love you, Sis. Nothing will ever change that. So don't ever run away from me again, okay?"

She nodded. "Okay."

Rio stroked her cheek. "Are you seriously fine here?"

She nodded. "I promise that I'm happy and safe. I want to stay."

Rio glanced at Master Eraqus. "You sure?"

Aqua nodded. "I'm positive."

"Alright, well, I guess I'm okay with that," he said. "But I haven't seen you in so long! I want to know all about what you've been doing, so let's have some brother-sister bonding time. First, I'm taking you to a spa. Then we'll go shopping for clothes. Then we'll-"

"Rio. You don't need to spoil me."

"Yes I do." He pressed his forehead against her forehead. "So we're going tomorrow."

"Okay." She smiled.

"Good." He hugged her again. "Bye Sis."

"Bye."

With that, Rio left.

Now that the ordeal was over, Aqua took a huge deep breath. Upon exhaling, she turned to Master Eraqus and said, "Sorry about that."

He asked, "You took my old journal? I was looking for it."

Aqua changed the subject. "Thank you for being supportive of me," she said.

"You're welcome. But seriously, Aqua, did you read my old journal?"

Aqua gave him a puppy dog look, and replied, "You asked me out on a date. So who is the real criminal here?"

"I-i-it wasn't a date, Aqua. It was simply a master and student attending a social event together." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, please return my journal to me at once."

"Of course."


	22. The Resolution

Terra came back a few days later.

"Hello!" he called out as he walked into the throne room. "I'm back!"

"Wait wait wait!" Aqua cried out. She was wearing an apron and her hair was pushed back by a bonnet. In her hand was a mop and beside her was a mop bucket. "Make sure your shoes I clean. I just mopped there."

Terra checked his shoes. "I'm good. Why are you mopping? Is it one of Master's training things?"

"No, this is punishment for taking his journal and reading it. As well as for not telling him that I was a runaway."

Terra raised an eyebrow. "He finally found out?"

"Yup. So he made me deep clean the entire palace." She chuckled. "It's spotless."

"How'd he figure it out?"

She shrugged. "Guess Master is smarter than I thought." She smiled at Terra. He smiled at her. Then she blushed and continued to mop. Terra blushed as well. He looked around. He scratched the back of his head. He began to say something. "Hey Aqua, about that kiss that we did before I left… Um… well…"

"I don't have an answer yet," she told him.

"Huh?"

"I don't exactly know what this feeling for you in my heart is. Is it rivalry? Admiration? Friendship? Love? I don't know. But what I do know is that I want to work hard to become a keyblade master alongside you. So let's work hard to reach our dreams. The both of us. And when we do, I'll have an answer. Are you okay with that?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Yeah I am."


	23. TIME FOR VEN!

"Master, I can't," Ventus said as he backed away from the hoard of humanoid, yet, cockroach-like creatures encroaching toward him. He trembled with fear. "I'm scared! This is scary!"

"Fight those heartless, boy," demanded Master Xehanort, who was standing a short distance behind Ven. "Fight them with the power of the darkness in your heart! Imagine everything that you hate, you despise, you detest! Let it fill you up completely!"

Two were in an arid, abandoned place. Dusty mountains loomed in the distance. All around them, the remnants of the keyblades of fallen warriors marked their graves. Ven started crying, "I can't! I'm scared!" The boy kept backing away, until he bumped into his master. The old man's scowl of deep disappointment caused Ven to feel ashamed of his terror.

But why wouldn't Ven be scared of the uncanny shadow-like creatures that moved spasmodically? They were terrifying. And there were so many of them. They were like creatures from his nightmares. Perhaps this was a nightmare.

Xehanort began to walk away. "Either you fight them, or I leave you here alone to die."

"Master, don't go," cried Ven. Tears streamed along his face. "No! Don't leave me!" He tried to follow Xehanort, but one of the heartless grabbed his right leg and pinned Ven down. In vain, he reached out to Xehanort. "Master!" he shouted. More heartless grabbed onto him. He felt himself suffocating. "MASTER!" Ven shouted.

He was overrun.

Ventus later awoke in his bedroom. Silently, he stared at the ceiling. Earlier that year, he had been cleaning out Master Xehanort's study, and had found some multicolored LED lights. Ven had hung them up along his ceiling. At night, he would turn them on and fall asleep to what he pretended was artificial stars. They were twinkling right now. He sat up. "So… was it… a nightmare?"

He got out of bed. He was wearing his training clothes. That meant, "It wasn't a nightmare." Fearfully, he walked to Master Xehanort's study. He knocked on the door.

"Come in," answered the Master. Ven entered into the room and remained silent. So Xehanort asked, "Why are you disturbing me?"

"I-I-I came to apologize," Ven said.

"To apologize for weakness is a useless gesture. The only apology that I'll accept is for you to grow stronger."

"I understand," Ventus said. He lowered his eyes.

"Do you _truly_ understand, Ventus? Do you truly understand how badly you have failed? Do you truly understand how disappointed I am?"

The boy shook with terror. "I'm sorry Master."

"Useless. You are useless, Ventus."

Ven's face felt burning hot. The pressure built up in his eyes as he forced back tears. His hands were clenched into fists and his eyes focused on the floor. His voice cracked. "I want to be useful Master. I know I have a purpose. Help me fulfil that purpose."

Xehanort smirked. "Very well then, boy. You must learn to use the darkness in your heart. You have plenty of it. Anger. Despair. Fear. So much fear, Ventus. What do you fear most?"

Ventus started to hyperventilate. He feared loneliness. Abandonment. He couldn't bear the thought of being cast away, like trash left to rot in a landfill. He was so terrified that he was dumbstruck. He couldn't answer. So Xehanort summoned his own keyblade. He pressed it against Ven's chest. "Think of all pain you have suffered. Think of your worst nightmares. Let those emotions consume you.

Ventus dropped to his knees. He mumbled. "I'm scared. Don't leave me." Tears rolled down his cheeks. "Why did you leave me? Why? I was so scared. I'm always so scared."

"And allow me to unlock the darkness in your heart," Xehanort concluded. An evil grin spread across his face as the tip of his keyblade began to glow. "Aaaaaaaaaaah!" Ven screamed in pain. There was a brilliant flash of light, followed by the sharp sound of glass shattering.

Ven fell sideways. He writhed and twitched, as if having a seizure. Meanwhile, a dark orb of essence gathered at the tip of Xehanort's keyblade. The orb condensed to the size of a gumball, before imploding with a burst of dark energy. Quickly, it molded itself into the shape of a simple heartless. It scuttled along the walls, as if desperately looking for something.

After emitting one last shout of pain, Ven stopped moving.

The heartless scuttled toward Ven's body and began to encircle it. It's beady yellow eyes stared into Ven's blue eyes, and watched the life drain out of them.

Xehanort lowered his keyblade. "Now, I wait."

A few days later, Xehanort grimaced in disgust at the empty shell of his student, Ventus. Xehanort had taken the boy to the boy's room and laid him on the bed. He had hoped that Ventus would wake up, but Ven's blue eyes remained dull and lifeless. He was comatose. "Pitiful," said the old man. "What shall I do with this useless thing now? I guess I'll dispose of it. Otherwise it'll rot here."

So he bundled up Ventus in a bunch of blankets and used the lanes between to walk to a random place, far away from his lair, so that no one could trace the body back to him. He arrived in a random little quiet island. He set the boy down on a palm tree. Although Xehanort was not a sentimental man, he observed a moment of silence for the boy. Looking up into the nighttime sky, he saw a meteor shower.

Perhaps the heavens, too, were crying about the tragedy that had befallen this wretched child. And the faintest bit of light sprung up in Xehanort's heart as he, for just the briefest millisecond, felt a twinge of pity. "Poor child," he muttered, as he prepared to leave.

Perhaps the heavens had mercy on the boy, because he suddenly sat up. "Huh?" Ventus mumbled. Xehanort, pleasantly surprised, grinned an evil grin.

So the old man carried Ventus back to his lair. Upon setting Ventus down on his bed to rest once more, Xehanort was met with another surprise. The simple heartless that had sprung from Ventus now had taken a humanoid form. A jet-black haired, red-eyed boy with the same facial features as Ventus. Yet, his personality was still like that of a heartless, as his eyes darted around, and he shook with a paranoid sort of energy. His hands wouldn't stop fidgeting. Every little sound caught this new boy's attention. It was as if he was learning to process all the sensory information in the world at once.

Xehanort spoke to him. "Hello there."

The boy repeated, "Hello there." He wore only an oversized black t-shirt. He kept tugging at it, as if the concept of clothes frightened him.

"I am Master Xehanort."

"I am Master Xehanort," the boy repeated.

Xehanort gently placed a hand on the boy's head. "No, no, I shall can you… Vanitus."

Vanitus repeated, "Vanitus."

"Yes, yes," said Master Xehanort.

Vanitus repeated, "Yes."


	24. Vanity Fair

Ventus may have woken up, but he wasn't entirely there. His eyes, still dull, seemed to stare at nothing in particular. He could barely speak, and he didn't seem to remember anything. Xehanort had to feed him and bathe him and dress him. And he also had to do the same for the newborn Vanitus. But at least Ventus was quiet. Vanitas kept asking questions.

The three of them where in Xehanort's study. The Master sat at his desk, writing something. Ventus was sitting quietly on a chair, beside the window. Vanitas was walking around the room, rapidly, looking at bookshelves, peeking through windows, flipping light switches, and generally being annoying. "Who is this?" Vanitas asked, pointing to Ven. When Xehanort didn't answer, Vanitas asked again. "Who is this? Who is this? Who is this? Who is this?"

"That is Ventus," Xehanort answered, hoping to placate the boy.

"Ventus?" Vanitas repeated. "Ventus. Ventus. Ventus. Ventus. Ventus."

"Quiet," Xehanort demanded.

"Quiet. Quiet. Quiet," said Vanitas.

Xehanort pointed to Ven. "Quiet. Like him. No noise."

Vanitas pointed to Ven and questioned, "Ventus?"

Xehanort nodded. "Ventus is quiet."

"Ventus is quiet…" Vanitas then stopped talking.

Master Xehanort was pleased. Now that stage one of his plan was complete, all he needed to do was continue to train Ventus and Vanitas so that they could one day fight to forge the chi-blade. The old man stood up from his desk. He grunted because a sudden wave of pain shot through his body. Xehanort leaned forward, a hand on his desk to steady himself, and a hand on his chest to calm his throbbing heart.

Vanitas noticed. "Master Xehanort?"

"No worries, Vanitas," the man said as he grabbed a potion from his desk drawer. He drank it all in one gulp, and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "This body is getting old. I need a new one. That is all."

Vanitas seemed concerned. Master Xehanort frowned. Concern, empathy, those were traits of light. No, no, that wouldn't do. Vanitas had to be a being of pure darkness. So Xehanort threw the potion bottle at Vanitas. It smashed against the wall behind the boy, who had barely dodged it by scuttling away quickly. "Fear. Anger. Hatred. That is all you must know," declared the master. "You have a purpose, Vanitas, and you will fulfil that purpose."

"Purpose?" Vanitas repeated.

"Yes." And Xehanort walked to his own room to go lie down.

Suddenly bored, Vanitas decided to walk around the lair. He went to the kitchen. He went to the living room. He went to Ven's room. He went to his own room. He tried to go to Master's room, but it was locked. He returned to Xehanort's study. Ven still sat in the same spot, quietly. "Ventus," said Vanitas.

No reply.

"Ventus. Ventus. Ventus. Ventus. Ventus. Ventus. Ventus. Ventus. Ventus. Ventus. Ventus. Ventus. Ventus. Ventus. Ventus. Ventus. Ventus. Ventus. Ventus. Ventus. Ventus. Ventus. Ventus. Ventus."

No reply.

So Vanitas took Ven's hand and placed it on his own chest. "Vanitas," he said.

This seemed to awake Ven from his stupor, slightly. "Vanitas?"

"Yes."

Ven slightly smiled.

Vanitas was thrilled.

After a few days, Vanitas was able to speak full sentences, and Ven could walk and mumble words. So Xehanort decided to start training Vanitas as a keyblade wielder. The three went into the woods behind their lair to begin the training. Ven sat on a tree stump, watching nothing in particular, while Xehanort drew his blade. "Can you do this, Vanitas?"

Vanitas got close so that he could observe Xehanort's keyblade. Then, holding out his hand, he summoned is own keyblade.

"Excellent," said the thrilled Xehanort. "Now, fight me."

"Why?"

"Do not ask questions, boy. Do as you are told."

Vanitas ignored Xehanort and examined his own keyblade. It was red and black. It felt smooth to the touch. "Keyblade," Vanitas said. "Is this the keyblade?"

"Yes."

Vanitas grabbed at his head with his free hand. "Why is it so familiar?"

"Can you fight with it, Vanitas?"

"Yes."

"Fight me."

So Vanitas ran toward Master Xehanort. He swung his blade. The Master jumped over the student's head and slashed him on the back. "ARRRRGH!" Vanitas shrieked as he fell forward. He squirmed, because that was the first time he had ever felt physical pain. He did not quite understand the sharp, bitter sensation, and it brought tears to his eyes. Xehanort told him, "Embrace the pain, Vanitas. You are a creature of darkness and you will only ever know pain."

Curling up into a ball, Vanitas, wide-eyed, began to hyperventilate. "Pain?"

"Get up! Defend yourself, or you shall only know more pain."

Paralyzed by fear, Vanitas remained on the ground. So Xehanort stomped on his side, right in the crevice between his ribs and hip. "Gaaaah!" Vanitas grunted.

"Get up, useless boy! Fight me!" The master kept stomping on Vanitas. As his body writhed, Vanitas cried out, "Ventus! Help me!"

Ven remained seated on his little tree stump in the corner.

"Ventus?" repeated the little boy made of darkness. "Ventus? Ventus!"

No reply from Ven. Xehanort brought his foot down upon Vanitas's head, knocking the boy unconscious. "Idiot. Did you think that fool would help you? He can't even help himself."

When Vanitas awoke, he found himself laying on the bed in his room. He felt a deep, burning sense of betrayal that churned his stomach. The feeling was so intense that he actually rolled off of the bed and threw up. On his knees, retching, he started to feel some more new emotions. He was angry. Livid. Infuriated. Sad. Miserable. Lonely. Hopeless. These feelings bubbled up until Vanitas felt that he would burst.

He seriously felt like he would explode. Perhaps it was another round of vomiting. So he closed his eyes. When he opened his eyes again, Vanitas was still in one piece. Yet, some strange creature stood beside him. It seemed very familiar. Like a creature from a terrible dream. It had a triangular head and jagged antennae, and pointed arms and legs with no hands and feet. It glared at Vanitas with glowing, red eyes.

With a scream, Vanitas sat up and backed away. Then he remembered that he was in physical pain. He screamed again. The weird little creature seemed to laugh at him. And that angered the boy so much that he pulled out his keyblade and slashed it.

It disappeared. But Vanitas only got angrier. And in the blink of an eye, two more appeared. So he hit them both. This time, four more appeared. So he struck those down. And the cycle continued. All throughout the night, he struck down those disgusting creatures. And all night long they respawned in larger and larger numbers.

By the time the sun rose, Vanitas had curled up into a corner of his room, rocking himself back and forth and mumbling to himself, "What's happening? What's happening?" The bedroom was filled to the brim with these creatures that he had somehow created. They scuttled about, jerking and bobbing their bodies unpredictably, mocking him. Vanitas was sure that they were sent to torment him. "Why? Why?" he kept mumbling.

Fortunately, Master Xehanort soon entered the room. And in the instant that he did, the terrible creatures vanished. Vanitas, wide-eyed, froze in shock. Master Xehanort saw only Vanitas, cowering in a corner, and the pile of vomit on the floor near the boy's bed. "Disgusting," the old man said. "Get up, child. Come clean your mess."

Vanitas obeyed. Although his body hurt, he was glad to be rid of the creatures. Once he had cleaned up his room, Xehanort tried to lead the boy to the woods again. And Vanitas got so scared that he started to weep, and scream, "No! No!"

Xehanort smacked Vanitas on the back of the head. "Don't you dare disrespect me, boy. You shall train and you shall become stronger. Do you understand?"

"No! No!" he tried to run away, but Xehanort beat him down with his keyblade. Again, Vanitas fell unconscious until that night. And when he awoke, he was surrounded by the army of creatures. All of their red eyes fixed onto him. But this time, they didn't seem to be mocking him. They seemed to be anticipating something. Vanitas jumped out of bed and stumbled to the door.

But they blocked it. And they swarmed over him, drowning him with their bodies. They seemed to be telling him something. They seemed to be telling him to remember. Remember the pain. Remember the fear. Remember the loneliness. Remember.

Vanitas screamed.

The next morning, Xehanort again found Vanitas rocking himself in a corner. "No. No. No." He kept muttering. "No. No. No."

"Get up Vanitas," the master ordered.

Vanitas kept rocking. Xehanort shook his head. "Must you continue to learn the hard way?"

Yet again, he beat Vanitas to sleep.

By the third night, Vanitas's monsters had begun to take various shapes. Some were animals, like monkeys and cats, dogs and birds. Some were objects, like books and jars. And some were humanoid, running around, blabbering all sorts of nonsensical things. They all rampaged about, making so much noise that Vanitas wondered why Master Xehanort wasn't running in here to figure out what was going on. Vanitas rocked himself back and forth as he watched his personal shitshow.

The next morning, once Xehanort opened the door and freed Vanitas from that hell, he willingly followed the old man to the forest to train. He fought as best as he could, but the old man had the advantage of experience, rest, and, perhaps, sanity. Xehanort mercilessly fought Vanitas until the boy once again lost consciousness.

Perhaps losing consciousness wasn't so bad. Upon waking, he was yet again bombarded by the parade of creatures jumping around, pulling his hair, dancing in front of him, and screaming, "Remember! Remember! Remember!"

"STOP!" shrieked Vanitas. "I REMEMBER! I REMEMBER!" He held onto his head and sobbed. "SO PLEASE GO AWAY!"

No, they didn't go away. Rather, they burst into applause and laughter and became even louder. They cartwheeled and twirled and flew and barked and tap danced all over his room, while laughing at him. They were all laughing at him, and chanting, "Never forget! Never forget!"

Vanitas had to get out of that room. He stood up, only to realize that his body hurt like hell. His legs gave out and he fell to his knees. Helpless, in pain, on the floor, he watched a bunny on a unicycle bang on a bass drum that was strapped to its chest, while singing, "Hello mi 'lady, hello my honey, hello my ragtime gal! Send me a kiss by wire! Honey my hearts on fire!"

It pedaled away, and was immediately eaten by a sabretooth tiger. The tiger then morphed into a humanoid shape, becoming the silhouette of man with no eyes, who wandered aimlessly, saying, "Look at all the pretty colors."

Holding his side, Vanitas managed to stand up. He leaned against the walls until he made it to the door. All of his creations were too busy having fun to notice him, so he snuck out of the room. Slowly, he limped toward Master Xehanort's study. There he found his master sitting at his desk, as usual, writing something in a journal. And Ven sat motionless in his seat by the window.

Xehanort met eyes with Vanitas. "What?"

"Pain. That was pain," explained Vanitas the best he could.

"Painful? Yes, training can be harsh. But you must learn to embrace it. Do you understand?"

The boy shook his head. "Why?"

"This world is full of nothing but pain. But once you fulfil your purpose, you will no longer feel pain. Understand?"

"Purpose? What is my purpose?"

"You and Ventus, together, you will make something much greater than yourselves."

Vanitas looked to Ven. Ven was empty. Vanitas would have traded anything to feel that same sort of peaceful emptiness. And that thought, along with the sight of Ven's dull eyes somehow infuriated Vanitas in a way that he had never before experienced. With a shriek of jealous rage, Vanitas summoned his keyblade. Despite the pain, he ran toward Ven with all his might, ready to strike a mortal blow.

Quickly, Master jumped in and parried the blow. "Not yet," Xehanort demanded.

"Angry! Useless! Abandon! Hate!" Vanitas said as he pointed to Ven. "He didn't help me! Why didn't he help me?" He then swung his keyblade at Xehanort. "Why did you hurt me? Why do you always hurt me? Why does everyone hurt me?" Xehanort parried each blow. Vanitas kept swinging. "Mom. Dad. Big Brother. Master. They all hurt me! Pain! Pain! All I know is pain! All I will ever know is pain!" Tears pooled up in his eyes. "I don't want pain anymore!" He kept swinging and swinging and swinging. "No more pain! No more Ventus! No more Vanitas!" He made one final blow.

Then he dropped to his knees. He was crying.

"Wonderful job, Vanitas," Master Xehanort said, gesturing outward. Vanitas's eyes doubled in size as he realized that the entire room had become filled with those weird creatures that had been in his room. Vanitas fell forward and curled up into a ball. He continued to cry. "I'm scared."

Xehanort assured him, "If you obey my commands, Vanitas, I assure you that you won't feel pain anymore."

"I'm scared," he mumbled.

"Go back to your room."

Vanitas hesitated. He didn't want to be tormented by those things anymore.

But what else could he do?

So he struggled to stand. Placing a hand on the wall, he guided himself back to his room. The horde of terrifying creatures followed him. Xehanort smiled. "All according to plan," he said to himself. "However, it would be bad if he killed Ventus now. What shall I do? Hmm?" He returned to his desk and made a phone call. "Eraqus, it's me. Xehanort."


	25. All Those Questions

Aqua and Terra were practicing in the throne room today. Master had left early this morning to do something, so the two were training each other. Aqua performed a fast combo attack while Terra watched. "The key is to let each movement lead into the next," she told him. "No pun intended."

Terra laughed a little bit. "Okay. I'll try." He swung his blade around, trying to mimic Aqua's combo.

"That's good," she told him. "But honestly, I think your style of fighting suits you. It'd be weird if a big guy like you was doing cartwheels and backflips and jumping around. Can you teach me to hit as hard as you do?"

Terra rested his blade on his shoulder. "To improve my strength, I do three hundred reps of each stroke every day."

"Three hundred?"

"Yup." He lifted his keyblade over his head and brought it in a downward slash. "One." He repeated it. "Two." He repeated it again. "Three." With each stroke he took a step forward. "Four. Five. Six. Seven." He picked up speed. "Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven."

Aqua began to swing her keyblade in an overhead strike. "One. Two. Three." She counted as she did the same movement over and over again. She eventually reached, "Sixty-seven, sixty-eight. Oh shit this hurts."

"After the pain it'll feel good. Trust me," assured Terra.

"I don't think I can do this."

"You're new to it, so it feels weird. But once you get used to it, you'll like it."

"I think I've reached my limit," she said as she rotated her shoulder. "I think I'll hurt myself if I keep going."

"Take it slow," Terra advised. "The first time is tough for everyone."

That is when the front door opened and closed. Curiously, Terra and Aqua peeked over the railing of the stairs to see who just walked in. It was Master Eraqus, and beside him, another man, a tan-skinned, bald fellow with beady yellow eyes and a white beard. The two spoke in hushed voices. Behind them followed a little boy. He stood by the doorway as the two older men walked away.

"Aqua, do you think he's a new student?" Terra said, pointing to the boy.

"Maybe," she replied. "He looks a bit young though. But I guess it's better to start early."

Terra jumped over the railing, landing in front of the boy. Although the kid was staring at the floor, he neither flinched or startled. He didn't even look up. Terra leaned forward and said, "Hi kid. I'm Terra. What's your name? How old are you? Are you a keyblade user too? Will you be joining us?"

The kid said nothing.

"Hello? Hey kid, I'm talking to you. You should listen to your elders."

Nothing.

Terra snapped his fingers. "Hello? Kid?" Finally, Ven looked up to meet Terra's eyes. Terra noticed that the boy's gaze was unblinking. So he asked, "Are you okay?"

Again, nothing.

"Are you ignoring me? What's going on here?" Terra tapped the boy's forehead. "Why aren't you answering my questions? Do you not speak the language? At least make an effort to say something. Unless you're shy? Are you shy, kid?"

Ven started screaming. "AHHHHHHH! STOP! AHHHHHHHHHH!"

Aqua, who had walked down the stairs like a normal person, met up with the two. "Huh? What's going on?"

Ven knelt down, placed his hands on his head and cried out, "HELP! HELP! STOOOOOOOOP! AHHHHHHHH!"

Terra took several steps back. Aqua asked, "What did you do Terra?"

Terra, panicking, responded, "I don't know!"

Luckily for the two, Ven's screams summoned Master Eraqus and Master Xehanort from the other room. Eraqus asked, "What's going on?"

Terra pointed to Ven and said, "I asked him some questions and he started screaming!"

"He lost his memory," Xehanort explained. "Don't ask him anything, you fool!"

"Sorry!" Terra apologized.

Ven was still screaming, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! AAAAAAAAH! AAAAAAAAAaaaaaahhh…" He fainted.

Master Eraqus, Master Xehanort, Aqua and Terra all waited to see what Ventus would do next. The suspense eased when they realized that Ventus had fallen asleep. Xehanort then faced Eraqus. "Well then, I shall leave him in your care."

"Very well then, dear friend. I will care for him."

"Good. Bye." With that last farewell, Xehanort left the palace. Dreadfully confused, Aqua asked, "What's going on?"

"Ventus will be joining us here as a student from now on," Eraqus explained. "However, he's in a bad condition right now, so he will need to rest. Terra, since you wanted to ask him questions, you should carry him to a room and watch over him for a while."

Feeling guilty, Terra nodded. "Of course." He picked up Ventus and slung him over his shoulder. Aqua followed him, saying, "I'll help."

Meanwhile, Eraqus recalled what Master Xehanort had just told him:

"Ventus is my student—or was my student." Xehanort looked worn down with remorse. "I trained him too hard. I was trying to push the boy past his limits, to make him stronger. But I only succeeding in damaging his heart. What a fool I have been, Eraqus!" Xehanort covered his face with his hands. "I have failed as a master. I have hurt my precious student. And I cannot forgive myself! I don't trust myself to raise him anymore. But he has nowhere else to go. So, Eraqus, can you open up your home to yet another student?"

Something had seemed fishy to Eraqus about the way that Xehanort told the story. It seemed as if the latter were leaving out a key piece of information. Perhaps he was even lying. After all, how could someone's heart become so damaged solely from training? "What sort of damage?" Eraqus asked.

"It seems like he used the darkness in his heart to grow stronger," Xehanort turned his face away. "The darkness began to overpower him. In order to save him, I needed to seal away the darkness. Now he is what you see before you."

"What of the darkness? What happened to it?"

"It separated from him. And I fear that destroying it will also destroy him. So I shall dedicate myself to watching over the darkness that I have sealed from Ventus's heart, for the rest of my days."

Eraqus wanted to believe his friend. "Very well then, Xehanort. Of course I will take care of Ventus."

Xehanort smiled—or perhaps it was a devious smirk. "Thank you, Eraqus."

Later that night, Aqua sat on a stool beside the bed, watching the rhythmic rise and fall of Ven's chest. "Terra, you put the kid in a coma," she stated. The two had taken shifts watching over him during the day, but Ventus still hadn't woken up. "I really didn't mean to hurt the guy," Terra told her as he paced back and forth. "I was just eager to meet him."

"It's not your fault. Something must be seriously wrong if the kid passed out like this." She stroked his hair and yawned. Terra checked his watch. It was 2am. "Get some sleep Aqua. I'll watch him."

"You don't need to watch him all night."

"I want to be here so he doesn't wake up alone and afraid in a foreign place. That would be terrible."

"You're so sweet Terra."

"Thanks."

She gave him a hug, and left to go sleep in her room. Silently, Terra applauded himself for acting cool in front of Aqua. But then he chided himself for making a little boy pass out. Terra exhaled. "What the hell could have happened to this kid?"

He didn't know when he fell asleep, but when Terra awoke the next morning, Ventus was still asleep. "Oh shit, did I seriously put this boy in a coma?" he muttered.

Aqua arrived soon after and, upon seeing Ven still asleep in bed, asked, "Should we take him to a hospital?"

Master Eraqus entered the room, and answered her question. "No, no. This is not something that medicine can heal. He simply needs time."

"Why is he like this, Master?" Aqua asked.

"Perhaps he is in shock," he answered her. "Please be patient with him."

So they were. For the next few days, Aqua and Terra took turns monitoring Ven's condition and caring for him. By the end of the week, Terra was sitting on the stool beside Ven's bed, playing on his cellphone, when, he heard a voice weakly ask, "Where am I?"

Utterly surprised, Terra jumped up and said, "You're awake!"

Ven sat up. Placing a hand on his forehead, he looked to Terra and asked once more, "Where am I?"

Afraid to cause the boy trauma, again, he didn't answer the question. Instead, he said, "You're safe right now."

"But where am I?" Ven insisted.

"Hold on for just a moment while I go get my Master."

"Master?" Ven grabbed his head. "M-master?" He began to tremble. "No. I'm scared."

Seeing Ven in distress, Terra decided to try to calm him down. He very gently grabbed Ven in a hug. "It's okay. I've got you. You'll be safe."

Ven shook his head. "I'm confused."

"It's okay. Just wait one moment."

So Terra sought out his Master and Aqua and the three returned to Ven's side. "So you're awake?" asked Master Eraqus. "Hello and welcome, Ventus."

"Is that me?"

"Yes, you are Ventus."

"Where am I?"

"You are in the Land of Departure in the palace that I guard as keyblade master. My name is Master Eraqus." He gestured to Terra. "This is Terra." He gestured to Aqua. "And this is my beautiful student Aqua." Aqua and Terra rolled their eyes while Master said, "From now on, you will be joining us as my student. Are you okay with that?"

Ven looked at their calm, smiling faces. The boy Ven nodded. A little bit of sparkle returned to his eyes.

"Good. Good. Well, first things first. Get cleaned up and eat something. Then Aqua and Terra shall give you a tour of the area. Aqua, Terra, I shall leave him in your care." Eraqus walked away.

Aqua complained, "Shouldn't he be the one taking care of Ventus?" She shook her head. "And why did he call me his 'beautiful student'?"

Terra griped, "At least he called you his student. I'm just Terra."

"He's so terrible," Aqua declared. She turned to Ventus. "I'll go make a nice sandwich for you, okay?" To Terra she said, "Give him a bath and a change of clothes." And she left.

"I don't want to give him a bath," grumbled Terra.

Ven, though, stared at him with innocent blue eyes.

"Alright, kid, let's take a bath," he said.

Once the boy was clean, Terra dressed him and took Ven to the dining room, where Aqua had set out some sandwiches. Ven looked to Terra. Terra said, "Go ahead. Eat." So Ven sat down and ate.

After a brief tour of the palace, Aqua and Terra took Ven to Master Eraqus's office. Aqua said, "Master, we're done showing him around." Eraqus approached Ventus and looked into his eyes. The boy's eyes were still dull, but a bit of shine had returned. Terra asked, "So what now?"

Honestly, Eraqus had no idea what to do next. But he couldn't admit that to his students. "We allow him to heal one step at a time," Eraqus said, while ruffling Ven's hair. Allow him to follow your daily routines. Once he gets accustomed to life here, perhaps his memories shall return. Treat him gently, until you see the shine return to his eyes."

"Right," Terra and Aqua replied.

The trio left Master's office. As they walked down the hall, Terra said, "Master has no idea what's going on, does he?"

Aqua nodded her head. "Nope. He's clueless."

"So what do we do now?"

Aqua shrugged. "Want to go to the summit and train?"

"What about Ventus?"

"He can watch, right?"

So the three went to the training field on the summit. Ventus sat in the grass and observed Aqua and Terra as they battled each other for practice.

"Freeze!" Aqua shouted, as she conjured a block of ice to shoot at Terra. Terra swatted it away and rushed toward her. She blocked the attack, but fell down. "Ouch, okay, okay, you win," she said. Terra laughed. "Haha, I'm getting better aren't I?" He helped her up. "You have to work harder if you want to keep up with me."

Aqua chuckled and answered, "You have too much stamina. I'm already finished before you're tired."

He pulled her closer and asked, "Am I being too rough? I don't want to hurt you."

"Don't worry about hurting me," she told him as she leaned closer to him. "I can handle a little bit of pain." The two laughed.

All of a sudden, Ven stood up. With a flick of his wrist, Ven summoned his keyblade. He ran toward the startled Aqua and Terra at full speed. Terra pushed Aqua aside and blocked a strike from Ven. Without flinching, Ven reversed on Terra and elbowed him in the back. Since Terra wasn't expecting it, he fell forward. Ven then charged at Aqua. She deflected his strikes, and back flipped away. Yet, he was too quick, because, he dashed at her and thrust her on the belly.

She fell back into the grass. Terra grabbed Ven in a headlock. "Hey! Stop it!" Terra told him. Ven elbowed Terra in the ribs and slipped out of his grasp. He turned and bonked Terra on the side of the head with his keyblade. Terra fell over and grabbed his head. "Shhhhhhiiiit," he swore.

"Why the hell is this kid so good?" asked Aqua.

Ven assumed a fighting stance, saying, "This is too easy." Some of the sparkle returned to his eyes.

Standing up, Aqua and Terra laughed awkwardly. "How about another round?" suggested Terra. "It won't be so easy."

"Yup," Aqua agreed. "You caught us by surprise last time."

"Alright then," Ven said, smiling.

And they proceeded to battle again.

By the end of the day, Aqua and Terra were laid out on the ground, breathing heavily, while Ven, slightly out of breath stood over them.

"What the actual fuck?" muttered Terra.

Aqua said, "This kid is insane. We need to focus more on our training."

Ven sat down. "You two are pretty pathetic," he said as he laid back on the grass. "But that was really fun."

And the three of them stared at the clouds for a little while.


	26. Guy Talk

Aqua tucked Ventus into bed that night. "Good night Ventus," she said.

"Goodnight," he replied.

She began to walk out of the room.

"Wait," Ven called out.

"Hm?"

"I don't want to be alone."

"Do you want me to stay here with you?"

"No. I want Terra."

"Okay, I'll go get him." She walked out the door. Ven followed. Opening the door to Terra's room, she said, "Terra, he wants to stay here tonight."

Terra, who was snuggled under his bed covers, reading a comic book, suddenly flinched. He hid the book under his pillow and said, "Aqua, knock before you come in here."

"My bad. But it's not like you have anything to hide."

"What if I was changing?"

"Then I'd get a sneak peek of something good, huh?" She laughed.

"Anyway," Terra said, "Ventus can sleep in his own room."

Ven spoke up. "I don't want to be alone."

How could Terra say no to that? So Terra patted his bed. "Fine. Come on."

Ven's eyes regained a bit more sparkle as he cuddled beside Terra on the bed. Terra told him, "But only for tonight. We're not going to make this a habit."

"Okay Notus."

"I'm Terra," he reminded Ven. "Who's Notus?"

Ven winced. "Um…? Uhhh….? I don't… remember…" Ven closed his eyes and tried to focus. Terra said, "Never mind. Don't worry, don't worry."

Aqua said, "Goodnight you two."

"Goodnight," Terra replied. And she left. Terra waited for a second, before reaching under his pillow for his comic. He turned away from Ven and said, "Get some sleep, okay?"

Ven nodded. But he couldn't fall asleep, perhaps because he'd been sleeping for a few days straight. So Ven asked, "Terra, what are you doing?"

"Reading."

"Can you read to me?"

"Um, this isn't the kind of story that kids should be reading."

"Oh." He kept quiet for a moment. "Terra?"

"Yes?"

"I can't sleep."

"Close your eyes and pretend you're sleeping and you'll fall asleep."

"Okay." But five minutes later, Ven once again said, "I can't sleep."

Annoyed, Terra replied, "What do you want me to do about it?"

"I don't know."

The softness of Ven's voice convinced Terra to stop being so rude. "How about we go for a walk? That might make you tired."

"Okay."

So Terra and Ven, both dressed in their pajamas, embarked on a late night adventure. They walked around the palace. They walked around the courtyard. They hiked to the summit. All the while, Ven quietly followed Terra. Once they reached the very top, Terra asked, "So, you feeling tired yet?"

Ven shook his head. Terra groaned. "You have too much energy."

"Sorry." The boy looked defeated as he said that.

"No, no, don't be sorry," Terra said. He sat on the ledge of the cliff. Ven sat too. They were quiet. So Terra said, "You whooped our asses earlier today. Both me and Aqua. At the same time…" With an awkward laugh, he added, "I feel embarrassed."

"You should be," Ven replied while he kicked his legs back and forth.

Rude. "Where did you learn how to fight like that?"

Ven lowered his eyes. "I don't remember. I don't remember anything."

"Oh. Never mind."

"No, it's a good thing." He turned to face Terra. "I feel like the things that I forgot were bad. I feel like all the bad stuff is gone, and I'm a new person."

Terra ruffled Ven's hair. "Okay. That's good."

"What about you, Terra?"

"Hmm? What about me? I'm just a normal guy who dreams of becoming a keyblade master. I've been studying under Master Eraqus for a little over a year now."

"Why do you want to become a master?"

"I guess I've always known that I was going to become a keyblade master. It was my dad's dream once. My dad was training under his master, but then he got my mom pregnant and decided to settle down and raise a family instead. Now he owns a construction company."

"Pregnant?"

"You know, he put a baby in her."

"How?"

"Um…" Terra didn't want to have the 'locks and keys' talk right now. "Magic."

"Magic?"

"Yup."

Ven was very confused. "So he put an actual, living baby inside of her?"

"Yup."

"How is that even possible?" asked the concerned, naïve little boy.

Terra decided to change the subject. "So anyway, Dad always told me stories of his life as a keyblade apprentice. He told me of how he wanted nothing more than the mark of mastery, until he met my mother." Terra chuckled.

Ven shook his head. "Many a man is lead astray by women."

Terra, thrown off by that statement, paused for a second to recollect his thoughts. "Um, well anyway, when I was a little kid, he carved a wooden keyblade for me, and we would go to the backyard and fight. He would always beat me. I went to visit him again a little while ago, and for the first time, I beat him. It was a really rewarding experience."

"It must have felt great to finally teach that old bully a lesson," Ven agreed.

"No. No, he wasn't a bully."

"But you said he would always beat you."

"In a sparring match. It wasn't abuse or anything. He never hurt me for real."

"Oh…" A wave of sadness seized Ven's face.

"Are you okay?" asked Terra.

"Hmm? Yeah…"

"Okay, well, what's your dream, Ventus?"

"Dream?" the boy pondered the question. "I don't have a dream. I don't have anything."

Terra patted Ven's shoulder, gently. "Then you can share mine. Let's become keyblade masters together." Under his breath, he added, "Since you're much better than me, I'll probably need to catch up to you."

Tears welled up in Ven's bright eyes. "O-okay." He started to cry.

"Huh? What now?"

"I've never felt like this before. I'm not scared."

Struck by those words, Terra embraced Ven in a hug. "You don't have to feel scared anymore. You're safe."

Ven clung to Terra, as Terra gently patted his back. Eventually, Ven closed his eyes and fell asleep. So Terra hoisted Ven onto his back, piggyback style, and carried him back to Ven's room. He tucked the boy into bed, but right as he was about to walk away, Ven mumbled in his sleep, "D-don't leave me…"

Terra groaned. "Fine."

So Terra slept in Ven's room that night.


	27. Am I Doing This Wrong?

The following morning, Ven was eating cereal while Aqua drank a cup of coffee. Terra had made pancakes and bacon for himself. The three of them were in the kitchen, with Ven and Terra sitting at the island bar in the middle of the kitchen while Aqua, standing on the opposite side, leaned forward against it. Ven asked, "When do we start training?"

Aqua shrugged. "Whenever Master wakes up."

Ven glanced out of the window on the far side of the room. "Is he still sleeping? The sun is already up."

"Yup. He takes his time."

Ven nodded. Then he looked at his bowl of Honey Nut Chocob-O's with a face of severity. Terra noticed, and asked, "Do you want more milk or something, Ven?"

Ven looked to him. "Who?"

"You. Ven. It's short for Ventus. Just like Terra is short for Dreterran."

Aqua piped in, "Your full name is Dreterran?"

"Yup. Dreterran Smith. I used to go by Dre back in elementary school, but then I got really fat in middle school, and my friends started calling me Terramoto. That means earthquake. After I grew some more, it all became muscle, so they just started calling me Terra."

"I've known you for over a year now, so it's a shame that I didn't know that." She took another sip of coffee. "I guess we all go by nicknames."

Terra leaned forward, "Aqua is your nickname?"

Aqua nodded, "It's short for Aquamarine. I don't like it because it's such a regal, fancy name—and I'm anything but fancy."

"I like it."

"You like everything about me," Aqua teased.

"Yes I do," Terra replied. She giggled. Ven scowled and spoke up, "Can I have more cereal?"

Aqua poured some more for him. He chewed slowly, enjoying the crunch of the honey coated multigrain O's as he made evil faces at Aqua. For some reason, Aqua thought that his facial expressions were adorable. She reached out to ruffle his hair and said, "You're so cute."

Terra nudged her with his elbow. "Thanks."

"Not you," she replied as she nudged him back. "Ven. I think he's adorable."

"I can be adorable too."

She raised an eyebrow. "Adorable isn't the word I'd use."

"What word would you use?"

"Maybe… annoying?"

"That's the next best thing."

She rolled her eyes and shook her head, all the while smiling. So Ven dropped his cereal bowl onto the floor. It shattered, splashing milk and cereal all over.

"Are you okay?" Aqua asked Ven. "Did you spill any on yourself?"

"I'm fine."

"Be careful," she chided him as she got some paper towels to mop up the mess.

After breakfast, the three went to the summit to train. The older students started by doing their stretches. Ven joined in. He stood beside Terra and touched his toes. "How often to you guys train?" Ven asked.

"A couple times a week," Terra replied.

Ven didn't quite understand. "A couple times a week?"

"Yeah. The rest of time is our free practice time."

Ven's face squeezed up, puzzled. "That doesn't make sense."

"What do you mean?" inquired Terra, equally as confused. Ven scratched the tip of his chin with his pointer finger as he replied, "I think that you're supposed to train for 10 hours a day every day. You're supposed to fight so hard that you can't breathe and you want to cry and your entire body hurts. If you don't pass out as soon as you return to your room, you didn't work hard enough."

Aqua and Terra just stared at him. Ven concluded, "That's what I thought for some reason. I can't remember why."

The two older students exchanged glances. Then they finished their stretches, summoned their keyblades, and started practicing their attacks. Aqua half-heartedly swung her keyblade around with one hand while she texted on her phone with the other. Terra overdramatically lifted his keyblade above his head and brought it down in an overhead strike… over and over again. Ven, quite puzzled, asked, "Are you two serious?"

Terra and Aqua once again exchanged glances. They both nodded. Ven shook his head. Summoning his keyblade, he demonstrated a 30-hit combo for them by jumping in the air and swinging his blade and dropping into a roll and slashing and kicking and using fire magic and concluding with a final blow. "That's the basics. Right?"

Aqua and Terra's faces were despondent. They kept silent.

Luckily for them, Master Eraqus arrived a few seconds after Ven's intense demonstration. "Good morning students," he said to them.

Ven spoke up, "Who are you?"

Master Eraqus reintroduced himself. "I am Master Eraqus. I will be your master from now on."

Ven blinked a few times, while he processed that sentence. "Oh… but didn't I already… um…?" Ven placed his fingers on his temples and rubbed them. "Vanitus?"

Eraqus said, "No, your name is Ventus."

"I know that," Ven replied. "But wasn't… there was another… I wasn't here before, was I? I was somewhere else, right?"

"Do not worry about that, Ventus. Shall we focus on our training?"

Ven nodded. "Okay."

Master Eraqus summoned his keyblade and held it in front of him. "Alright then, shall we begin? Terra, come here and let me demonstrate a counter attack."

Terra approached the Master. "Come at me as if you were attacking me, Terra," he said. Terra did so. Master thrust out his keyblade to parry the strike, turned his body to kick Terra in the gut and thrust his blade to knock Terra back a few feet.

Aqua clapped. Ven swatted at her hands and demanded. "Don't clap for that. That's simple."

Of course the Master heard that. "Simple? Well then, Ventus, come and repeat my movements." He beckoned Ven toward him. So Ven approached Master Eraqus and took a fighting position.

"Reverse grip?" Master Eraqus noticed.

Ven nodded. "Yup."

"Interesting. On guard. Here I go."

Master Eraqus swung his keyblade. He did not expect Ventus to be that fast. Before he knew it, Ventus had knocked him back six feet.

This kid was good. Like, really, really good. _Xehanort should have warned me_ , Eraqus thought to himself. Aqua and Terra clapped. The Master cleared his throat. "Very good, Ventus."

"Call me Ven for short," Ven instructed.

"Well, Ven, how about we try that again?"

"Only if you want another beating, Old Man."

"You shall be the one taking a beating, Ven," Master Eraqus declared. "Prepare yourself." The two took fighting stances. They locked onto each other's gazes. Within a blink of an eye they sprinted. Eraqus slashed. Ven countered. But this time Eraqus blocked Ven's kick. Ven stumbled into a backflip, barely missing another attack from the Master.

Now Ven was on the defensive, dodging Master Eraqus's attacks. Jumping back, reversing, rolling, dashing. Master moved faster and faster, leaving no openings. Right as Ven dodged a slash, Master Eraqus spun around and tossed his keyblade at him. Clang! Ven parried it, but the blow knocked Ven's blade out of Ven's hand. Master's keyblade teleported back to him. He charged at Ventus, stopping short of smacking him upside the head with the keyblade.

Ven, stiff as a tree, locked eyes once again with his Master. Master Eraqus smiled and said, "Master beats student, yet again. Perhaps one day, though, you shall surpass me."

A scowl formed on Ven's lips. "Is that it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are those all your skills? Aren't you supposed to be a keyblade master?"

This kid was rude. Like, really, really rude. "Of course I am a keyblade master. How dare you insult me?"

"How could you be a master if you were having trouble fighting me?"

"I wasn't having trouble, Ventus," sternly declared the Eraqus. "I was getting a sense of your skill level so that I could push your limits without causing you any harm. If I were to fight you with my full power, I could possibly kill you."

"Yeah right," scoffed Ven. "A real master hits his student with everything he has. If the student can't bear it, then good riddance."

Master Eraqus shook his head. "No, no, no. Any powerful idiot could swing a keyblade as hard as he can. Just look at Terra."

Terra interjected, "Why are you so mean to me?!"

Eraqus concluded, "It takes skill, control and wisdom to master the art of suppressing one's strength."

"Fight me without holding back," Ven demanded. "Show me your true strength, Eraqus."

A grimace seized the Master's face. "I am your master, and you shall address me as such."

Ven looked the old man right in the eyes and said, "You are not my master and I will never address you as such."

Aqua mumbled, "Oh whoa…"

"Damn," Terra whispered.

Eraqus knew that in the face of such disrespect, one must make a quick, powerful response. Yet, acting out in violence and anger would diminish one's honor. So as much as Master Eraqus wanted to slap the boy's mouth, he calmly said, "Go to your room Ventus, and think about what you've said."

"Whatever, **Eraqus** ," Ven emphasized as he marched away.

Once the pitter patter of Ven's feet died off, an unbearably awkward silence surrounded the Master and his two older students. So Master Eraqus said, "He is quite a bratty child. But enough of that. Shall we continue the lesson?"

Aqua and Terra struggled to contain their laughter. Master Eraqus felt his face get hot. He regretted that he didn't at least box the boy's ears.

Once the precedent was set, Ven's disrespect continued. The next day, Aqua and Terra were training with each other on the summit, under Master Eraqus's watchful eye. "Aqua," the master called out, "Magic is your strength. Use it more often. Terra, improve the timing of your counter attacks."

"Yes Master," they both said in unison.

Ven, who was sitting on the ground beside the Master, shouted, "You two are fighting like you aren't serious. At this rate, you'll be as old as Eraqus when you become keyblade masters."

"Ventus, stop this sassiness at once," Eraqus demanded.

"The right way to do it," Ven said, as he stood up, "is to fight like your life depends on it. Because in the battlefield, no one is going to take it easy on you." Ven summoned his own keyblade. "Let me show you how it's done."

He sprung into battle, barely missing Aqua with an uppercut. She leaned back into a triple flip to put some distance between herself and Ven. "No, Ven, stop it," she ordered. "No one is trying to hurt anyone. It's a sparring match."

Terra agreed, "Yeah, hurting each other won't help us learn faster."

Yet Ventus argued, "It's all about pushing your limits, Terra. When was the last time you really challenged yourself? It looks like you don't even want to improve."

Terra took a moment to contemplate Ven's words, before mumbling, "It's half and half with this kid. Sometimes he says ridiculous stuff and sometimes he's wise beyond his years."

Ven turned around and pointed to the Master. "And it's his job to push your limits. But it seems like Eraqus isn't serious either. No one here is serious." And with that, Ven marched away to go sit on a ledge a short distance away.

With a scowl, Master Eraqus, too, thought deeply about Ven's words. He asked himself, "Have I become complacent in my style of teaching? Am I not encouraging Aqua and Terra to reach their full potential?"

Terra interjected, "Well you always insult me, and that's not encouraging."

Ignoring Terra, Master Eraqus began to remember the situation that he experienced with Jerome. And he recalled what his former student had said, _None of you are serious about mastering the keyblade!_ The Master sighed. "Perhaps I am too easy-going," Eraqus decided. "Aqua and Terra could probably handle a more difficult training regimen. So that is what we shall do." He looked to his older students. "Perhaps looking through the lens of Ventus's youthful idealism, we can learn a thing or two. Starting tomorrow, we shall pick up the pace of our training. Take the rest of the day off, and prepare yourselves"

Aqua and Terra nodded.


	28. Can I Phone a Friend?

That same night, Terra was in the kitchen making dinner for everyone. Ven hung around him, asking, "Do you need any help?"

Terra shook his head. "Nope. Making tacos isn't that hard. Go sit down somewhere."

So Ven obediently sat down at the bar island in the kitchen. Bored, he laid his head down and complained, "There's nothing to do around here."

"Go take a bath or something."

"Okay." So Ven scurried off to take a bath. By the time he returned, Terra had finished making dinner, and everyone was gathered around the dining table, prepared to eat. Ven joined in, sitting beside Terra and across from Aqua. "Yum," he said, as he took a bite of his food. "It's good."

"Thanks," Terra replied. "Don't make a mess."

"Okay." Ven carefully ate, so as not to drop food all over the place. "So while I was taking a bath, I started thinking. And I have a question. Why am I here?"

Aqua and Terra looked to Master Eraqus. Master Eraqus knew that Ven might eventually ask this question, so he had prepared a response for it. "Don't worry about why you are here. Just know that you are and you are now my student."

"I wasn't asking you, Eraqus," Ven snapped.

"That is _MASTER_ Eraqus, child."

"I'll call you Old Man Eraqus," Ven compromised. "That's the best I can do."

Terra sternly demanded, "Stop being rude Ven. You are going to address Master Eraqus as Master Eraqus. Do you understand?"

Ven kept silent and kept eating his food. Terra shook his head and said, "It's probably just a phase, Master."

After dinner, Eraqus retired to his room. Frustrated, he paced back and forth, wondering aloud, "What have I gotten myself into? Such a disrespectful brat! How could Xehanort have dealt with him? Xehanort isn't the type to stomach rudeness." He pondered the dilemma, until an answer popped into his mind. "Could this behavior be due to his memory loss? I wonder what he was like before he lost his memory."

So Eraqus decided to call Ven's former master, Xehanort. "Hello?" spoke the old friend on the other end of the line.

"Good evening, Xehanort, my friend. It is I, Eraqus."

"Eraqus, hello. And to what do I owe the pleasure of this phone call?"

"I'm really curious about the boy that you have placed in my care."

"Oh, Ventus? Yes, how is he doing?" Xehanort asked, his interest piquing.

"He has made some recovery."

"How wonderful."

"But," Eraqus continued, "he seems to be curious about his past. He seems to remember faintly some bits and pieces, but nothing coherent or cohesive."

Xehanort was quiet for a moment. "He didn't mention anything about a chi-blade, right?"

"Chi-blade? No."

"Good. If he mentions anything about that, ignore it. Poor boy could be a tad delusional."

"Rather than delusional, he seems a tad bratty," Eraqus explained.

Xehanort repeated, "Bratty?"

"Disrespectful. Childish."

"In what way?"

"First of all, he calls me Eraqus."

"That's your name," stated an annoyed Xehanort.

"No, what I mean is that he refuses to call me 'Master'. He questions my teachings. He talks back to me. That is the sort of bratty behavior that I am talking about."

"Interesting. Ventus did no such things to me."

Eraqus frowned. "Tell me, how was Ventus when he was under your care?"

Xehanort smirked. "Obedient. Hard-working. Easy to manipulate. What a wonderful child he was. It is such a shame what happened to him, really."

"Yes, it is," agreed Eraqus. "How hard did you push the boy? He seems insistent on a rather harsh style of training."

"Nothing he couldn't handle—or so I thought."

"What sort of training exercises did you do?"

"The typical sort of things. Combat practice. Magic practice. Shotlock practice. Agility practice."

"How often? For how long?"

"Why do you ask?"

Eraqus admitted, "He critiqued my style of training as being too easy."

"The boy is delusional," Xehanort lied. "He pushed himself too hard, so now he must believe that his training was more difficult than it actually was."

Eraqus regained some hope. "So then my style of teaching is fine?"

"There is nothing wrong with working your students harder," said Xehanort. "It seems like you have two very fine pupils. The girl and the young man. That young man seems quite healthy and vigorous. What is his name?"

"Terra. He is a fine young man, but I would not brag about his keyblade skills. Aqua, however, she is my star student. Not only is she hardworking and graceful, she is beautiful and kind."

"Is that the one that you have fallen for?"

"No! No one is falling for students," quickly replied Eraqus. "Anyway, I called to speak about Ventus. He is doing well now."

Xehanort chuckled. "Good to know. Say, Eraqus, do keep me updated on the progress of your students. I would love to be present for their Mark of Mastery Exam."

Master Eraqus agreed. "Very well then."


	29. Birth by (Go To) Sleep

Ven had been living with Terra, Aqua and Master Eraqus for a few weeks now. And each night, the same series of events occurred.

 _First._

Aqua would tuck Ven into bed. "Alright, are you comfortable?" she would ask.

"Yeah, sure," Ven would reply.

"And you're going to stay here in your room and sleep, right?"

He would refuse to answer that question.

"Ven. You're a big boy. You need to stay in your room, okay?"

The kid would shrug. Aqua would prop his window open slightly, to allow for the breeze to drift in. She would then turn on the nightlight, turn off the overhead lights, and sit on the edge of his bed.

"Go away," Ven would demand.

"Promise me that you're not going to run to Terra's room as soon as I leave?"

Ven would refuse to reply.

 _Second._

Eventually, Ven would fall asleep. Aqua would very, very carefully tiptoe away from the room, taking absolute care to not awaken the boy.

 _Third._

Sometime late at night, Ven would awake. Either he had a bad dream, or he needed to pee, or maybe a noise roused him. Regardless, once he woke up, (and peed if he needed to), he couldn't get back to sleep. He would lay helplessly in bed for about ten to fifteen minutes, breathing rapidly. Sometimes he would stare out of the window and look at the stars.

 _Fourth._

Ven would get up and go to Terra's room. If the door was open, he'd walk right in and jump into Terra's bed. If the door was locked, he'd bang on it and shout, "TERRA! TERRA!" until Terra lost his cool and opened the door. "WHAT?!" Terra would yell.

"I can't get to sleep," Ven would whine.

And Terra would be super pissed.

 _Fifth, Version A._

Yet, sometimes Terra would feel sympathy for Ven and allow Ven to sleep with him. And that would be the end of it.

 _Fifth, Version B._

Sometimes Terra would take Ven back to Ven's room, and stay with him until Ven fell asleep again. Unfortunately, Ven always woke later in the night. So the cycle would repeat at step three, until Terra finally let Ven sleep with him or Terra got so tired that he fell asleep in Ven's room.

 _Fifth, Version C._

Sometimes when the cycle started to loop, meaning that Ven continuously kept coming back to Terra that night, Terra would become incredibly frustrated. Instead of taking Ven back to Ven's room or allowing Ven to sleep with him, he'd take Ven to Aqua's room. If Ven ended up in Aqua's room, she would allow him to sleep in her bed with her. Either way, Ven would spend the night with Aqua or Terra.

And that had occurred EVERY NIGHT since he had first awoken from his coma-like state. Ven seemed no worse for the wear, because every morning he would wake up, well rested, at sunrise.

But Terra was losing sleep, and getting really annoyed, especially since Master Eraqus decided to start being more serious about their training. Therefore, the young man took action one Saturday morning.

That morning, after Aqua had given Ven a bowl of cereal and sat him down in front of the television so that he could watch cartoons, Terra pulled her aside and said, "We really need to do something about Ven's sleeping habits."

Aqua defended Ven. "Give him a break. Heaven knows what he's been through in his short life."

Rolling his eyes, Terra replied, "I don't care what he's been through. I haven't gotten a good night's sleep in weeks."

"That's a shitty thing to say, Terra! Don't you listen to what he says in his sleep in the middle of the night?"

"No…" He cringed. "Do you?"

"Yeah, he talks in his sleep a lot."

"That's kind of creepy Aqua."

Blushing, Aqua crossed her arms in front of her chest. "I noticed because he always tosses and turns like he's having a nightmare. And he keeps saying things like, 'Don't hurt me,' or 'I'm scared,' or 'No one loves me.' So I think that he needs someone to comfort him, or else he can't get to sleep."

"Well if you are willing to do it, you should make him stop bothering me," Terra begged.

"Why does it bother you so much?"

"He kicks in his sleep! And he rolls over and steals the blankets. Yet somehow, the next morning, he's always sprawled out on top of me, and he's heavier than he looks. And once he was sleeping upside down, so I woke up with his butt in my face. And he farted!"

A grin spread across Aqua's face. Terra groaned. "It's not funny Aqua. His farts stink."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," she replied, fighting back her laughter. She couldn't help it though, and broke down into a fit of giggles. Terra slumped forward. "Aqua," he whined, "he's seriously driving me insane. I feel like I'm going to kick him in the face the next time he tries this shit. Doesn't it bother you?"

"Not at all. I sleep in weird positions too. And when I was younger, I used to sleep in my older brother's room all the time. I was terrified of the dark, so he would hug me and tell me that everything would be okay. I feel like I'm doing the same thing for Ven."

"That's sweet. But at a point you grew out of that, right?"

"Well," Aqua said as she looked upwards, trying to recall the situation, "the only reason I started sleeping in my own room is because my brother went to boarding school, when he was fifteen and I was ten."

"That gives me an idea," Terra said as he concocted a plan.

So that night, it was business as usual. Aqua pampered Ven and coaxed him to sleep. About an hour after she left, Ven awoke, and made his way to Terra's room. The door was wide open today, so Ven walked inside and jumped onto the bed…

…only to realize that Terra wasn't in the room. Sitting up, Ven looked to his left and right. "Terra?" Ven spoke up. No answer. Frowning, Ven laid down for about twenty minutes, waiting for Terra to appear. "Terra?" the boy called out once again. "Terrrrraaaa!"

Ven jumped out of bed. Dragging his blankets along with him, Ven roamed the hallways, shouting, "TERRA! TERRA!" No response. So Ven checked each bedroom in the palace. Then he wandered around, down the stairs, into the throne room, outside, into the courtyard and finally made his way up to the summit of the mountain.

No Terra.

Distraught, Ven made his way back to Terra's room. Nope. Still no Terra.

So Ven hurried to Aqua's room. Banging on the door, he shouted, "AQUA! AQUA!" Half-awake, dressed in an oversized shirt, and her hair wrapped up in a bonnet, Aqua opened the door. "Hm? What?" She wiped the sleep from her eyes and yawned.

"Terra is missing!" declared Ven.

"He's probably pooping or something. You can stay here if you want."

"No! I want Terra! I looked everywhere and I can't find him."

"Are you sure? Maybe you just missed him. If you go back to the room and wait for him, he might show up." Ven gave her the evil eye, as if she had just suggested the dumbest solution ever. She concluded, "I don't know what you want me to do about it Ven. Do you want me to go to his room and wait with you?"

Ven shrugged. The two awkwardly stood at Aqua's door for a minute. "Fine," he agreed.

So Aqua tucked Ven into Terra's bed, and stayed with him until he fell asleep. Aqua ended up falling asleep too.

The next morning, Terra entered into his room to see Ven sleeping, spread out like a starfish, and Aqua sleeping, wrapped around Ven like a cooked shrimp.

Terra, quite amused, said to himself, "They do sleep weird." Aloud, he shouted, "WAKE UP," as he shook them. Ven awoke first, shouting, "Master! Don't leave me!" He looked around rapidly, as if to regain his bearings. "Terra!" Ven shouted as he crawled out from under Aqua. She fell off of the bed, and that woke her up with a start. She shouted, "Rio, don't leave me!" For a moment, she too, needed to regain her bearings. "Where am I?"

Ven, meanwhile, clung to Terra. "Where did you go last night?"

Terra sternly told him, "I'm not telling you. It's about time that you learned to sleep in your own room, by yourself. So I'm going to force you to do that."

"But Terra!" whimpered Ven.

"I'm serious Ven."

Aqua, still groggy, stood up and mumbled, "This isn't my room." And she staggered away.

The following evening, Ven stalked Terra. The latter was sitting on a couch in the living room, playing with his phone, while the former hid behind the doorway and watched. Ven was so focused on Terra, that he didn't notice when Aqua snuck up behind him and said, "Time for bed, Ven."

Briefly, Ven turned his head to say, "Go away." Upon returning his attention to the living room, Terra had disappeared. Ven dropped to his knees. "What?! Where'd he go?" Turning to Aqua, he shouted, "He escaped because of you!"

"Escaped? Were you two playing hide-and-seek or something?"

"No!" With a groan, Ven complained, "Ugh, you are so stupid."

"Get up and get ready for bed," she told him as she dragged him away.

Once again, Aqua stayed in Ven's room while waiting for him to fall asleep. She was reading a book. He laid in bed, watching her. He asked, "Why do you always do this?"

Aqua shrugged. "I don't have anything better to do." She turned a page in her book.

"Stupid Aqua," he grumbled. But, before he knew it, Ven fell asleep. And before he knew it, he woke up again with a start. The room was dimly lit by his nightlight and the glittering moon outside. He was alone. Rolling over, Ven sat there in silence, saying to himself, "Just go back to sleep, Ventus." But he couldn't. His eyes wouldn't stay closed. His mind raced about nothing in particular, and his heart rate jumped up. He felt a dreadful sort of suspense, as if something bad, like, really, really bad, were about to happen. Any moment now.

His whole body tensed, and he started to breathe rapidly. His chest ached. Had his heartbeat always been this loud? He felt like his heart would explode from his chest any moment now. He felt like he was seriously going to die.

Liquid misery started to stream down his cheeks. "Just go to sleep Ventus," he begged himself in between shallow gasps of air. He grasped at his chest. "Why can't I go to sleep? Why does this keep happening? Every night, it happens. Every night, I can't go to sleep." And he cried silently.

But crying didn't help.

Once he couldn't stand that feeling anymore, Ven got up, and hiked over to Terra's room. Again, it was empty. And again, he futilely waited for Terra to return. And again, when he realized that Terra wasn't coming back, Ven went to Aqua's room.

"AQUA! AQUA! AQUA!" Ven shouted.

She answered her door. "Huh?"

Ven said nothing, yet he was visibly trembling, and hyperventilating. She beckoned him inside. "Come on."

So he joined her in her bed. Reaching out to stroke his hair, she said, "It's okay. I'm here. You're safe."

He nodded.

Aqua laid awake, watching him. Slowly, his breathing calmed down. His heart quieted. His cheeks reddened. "Stop staring," Ven told her, pouting.

"When I was your age," she began, "I hated sleeping by myself too. But my big brother left, so I had no choice. One thing that helped me, though, is that I had a stuffed elephant doll named Zoe. She was as big as I was and I hugged her all night long."

"That sounds dumb," said Ven.

"Yeah, it was." She laughed quietly. "She was just a doll, but she was always smiling at me. I would tell her my problems, and I would pretend that she could listen. That way, I didn't feel so alone… Now that I think about it, when I was a little girl, I wasn't afraid of the dark. I was afraid of being alone."

They were quiet for a moment. Aqua began to close her eyes and drift off to sleep. But Ven mumbled, "Aqua?"

"Hmm?"

"Can I have it?"

"Have what?"

"Zoe."

Aqua stood up. "I don't have Zoe with me anymore, because my mom set all my things on fire one day when she was mad at me. But, I have a Mizz Piggy doll that I stole from Master Eraqus." She rummaged through a treasure chest that was tucked in a corner of her room. "Don't worry I washed it really well." And she handed it to Ven.

"Mizz Piggy?" repeated the boy as he embraced the doll. It was about the size of a pillow, and fluffy. Like, really, really fluffy. Ven felt like he was holding a cloud.

"Yeah. She's a pig with a wig. She has a lot of class and sass."

Ven cuddled with the doll. "That's stupid."

And he fell asleep.

The following night, after Aqua tucked Ven and Mizz Piggy into bed, he fell asleep much quicker. She then walked down the hall, up a few flights of stairs, and all the way to the attic, where Terra was camping out in a makeshift bed. She sat down beside him and said, "I think he'll sleep through the night this time."

Terra yawned. "I hope so. Staying here is worse than sleeping with Ven." Sitting up, he said, "We're really good at this bad-cop/good-cop thing. We'd probably be super awesome parents in the future."

Aqua laughed. "I think we're pretty good parents right now, even though we didn't sign up to raise a kid. Master Eraqus did."

Terra groaned and laid back. "That lazy old man dumps all his chores on us."

"Yeah. Well I'm gonna go back to my room in case he comes knocking."

"Alright. See you tomorrow."

But Ven stayed in his room the whole night. And the rest of the nights after that.


	30. Candy Boy

"I'm going to the post office to pick up a package," Aqua shouted out as she walked toward the front door. "Anyone else need anything from downtown?"

Master Eraqus, who was upstairs, shouted, "Check to see if I got any mail—and don't read it!"

"Of course not, Master," she said sweetly.

Terra, who was training in the throne room, said, "I don't need anything."

Ven, who was training with Terra in the throne room, said, "Don't come back!"

"Alright bye," shouted Aqua as she left. The door closed behind her with a thud. Ven peeked over the railing of the staircase. With excitement in his eyes, he asked, "Do you think she seriously won't come back?"

"Does he hate her or something?" Terra mumbled. Aloud, he told Ven, "Focus. We were sparring, right?"

The two exchanged blows. Ven kept swinging his blade, and Terra kept blocking. "Take this! And this! And this!" Ven yelled as he pummeled Terra. Yet, the older student guarded each blow and waited until just the right time… SMACK! Terra landed a counterattack that knocked Ven into the opposite wall. "SHHHHIT, I didn't mean to hit you that hard!" Terra yelled as he rushed to Ven's aid.

But Ven rose to his feet, saying, "I've taken much worse." The boy assumed fighting position again. "I'm pretty tough."

Terra winced. "Okay… Well…" He resumed his fighting position as well. "Then I won't take it easy on you." And they continued to battle.

About an hour or so later, Aqua returned with her package, the master's mail, and a few things that she picked up at the supermarket for dinner. She set the food in the kitchen, delivered the mail to Master Eraqus, and took her package to her room.

It was a rather large package that her brother had sent to her. She opened it to reveal several goodies: an envelope with some munny; a new dress; a picture of her brother posing in front of the family's new factory in Agrabah; and an herbal body wash. There was also was a metal case, about an arm's length long, a hand's width wide, and a hand's width tall, in the shape of a treasure chest. Inside, it was packed full with exotic chocolates, and a note that said, "I bought the best chocolates in Agrabah for my little sister! Don't eat it all at once or you'll get fat. (^_^)"

Out of spite, Aqua ate two entire chocolate bars right then. The bars were pretty big, though, so now her mouth was dry and she regretted her actions. She decided that she probably shouldn't eat all of the chocolate at once, and opted instead to share with Ven and Terra.

First she walked to Ven's room. She opened the door just a tad, so that she could see what he was doing. It was nothing in particular—just holding Mizz Piggy and talking to himself. "Mizz Piggy," he said, "I think I'm happy. But somehow, I feel a little guilty. Like there's a part of me that's not really happy right now. What should I do?" The doll was silent of course. But Ven kept talking, "Ignore it? Yeah, because there's nothing I can do about it, huh?"

Aqua whispered, "Awww, poor thing." Then she knocked on the door and called out, "Hey, Ven, are you in there?"

"No! Go away," Ven demanded.

However, Aqua opened the door and entered inside. "My brother sent me some chocolate. Want some?" She sat beside him on the bed and offered the case to him.

"Is it poison?" the kid asked.

"Nope."

The brightly colored wrapping paper enticed the otherwise suspicious Ven. "Okay." And he took one bar that was wrapped in sparkly gold foil. He opened it up and bit into it.

His eyes widened.

His body froze.

He dropped the chocolate.

Aqua, too, tensed. "Oh my God was it actually poisoned?" she gasped.

"Wh-what was that?!" he shouted.

"Chocolate! I swear it's just chocolate!"

"Chocolate? Chocolate? CHOCOLATE?" Ven screamed. He stood up and threw Mizz Piggy into the air. "CHOCOLATE?! CHOOOOCOLATE! CHOOOOCOLATE!" Ven snatched the bar from the ground and stuffed it into his mouth like a chipmunk. "CHOCOLATE!?" he screeched with his mouth full.

Aqua closed the case. She quickly left the room.

That was weird.

She found Terra speaking to Master Eraqus in the throne room. "Master, what is Ven's past?"

"Why do you ask, Terra?" Eraqus replied.

"Sometimes he says things that concern me."

"Ventus is a rather interesting child. Do not worry about it too much."

"Okay then…"

Aqua lowered her eyes. "I wonder what Master is hiding?" she thought quietly. However, she entered the throne room, saying, "My brother sent me chocolates. Would anyone like some?"

Terra helped himself to two bars. "Thanks."

Master Eraqus grabbed one as well. "How is your brother doing?"

"He's fine," Aqua said. "As busy as ever." She closed the case of chocolate. "I'm going to get dinner started. I'll shout when it's ready." And she walked away.

Master Eraqus looked upwards, as if critically thinking about something. "I'm glad that she and her brother are getting along well. He is the only family that she has now."

"What do you mean, Master?" Terra asked.

"Did I say that aloud?" Eraqus cringed. "I thought I was thinking that."

"Seriously, though, what do you mean, Master?"

"Aqua and her mother have completely cut off ties. Remember?"

"No."

"Oh, you weren't there, were you? No, you weren't."

"What happened?"

Master Eraqus shook his head. "None of your business, Terra." Turning away, he took a few steps forward and looked out of a window, solemnly. His mind seemed to drift as he recalled the situation. "I think it was the week when Terra went home to visit his own family. Yes, it was. Aqua's family, the proud owners of the powerful D'Vitae Group, came to the Land of Departure to officially open their newest potion factory. Aqua and I both went to the ribbon cutting ceremony—but it was NOT a date. There, I was once again reunited with the former love of my life, Trisha D'Vitae, who hates me still for the betrayal I committed all those years ago. Who would have guessed that the daughter of my former lover would one day become my student? What a cruel destiny. Anyway, Aqua revealed to me that she had run away from her home and her life as a wealthy heiress in order to follow her true passion and become a keyblade master. Her mother was very much against the idea, so she had disowned Aqua for running away. Yet, once reunited with Aqua, Trisha offered her daughter one more chance to return. Upon Aqua's refusal, Trisha cut all ties with her. Aqua's brother, however, went against his mother's wishes and approved of Aqua's decisions. He too, was disowned… How could Trisha be so cruel to her children?"

Master Eraqus stopped his monologue and stared off into the distance. Terra felt a just a pidge of guilt for eavesdropping. And he felt more than a bit of concern at the idea that Master Eraqus was slowly slipping into senility, and speaking his most private thoughts out loud.

Anyway, Terra headed back to his room with his shoulders slumped over. Aqua hadn't told him any of this. "And I thought we were friends," he mumbled.

During dinner, Ven shivered. He rubbed his arms rapidly. His teeth chattered. Everyone noticed. "You okay, Ven?" Terra asked.

"I want chocolate," he whimpered.

Aqua said, "You act like you've never had chocolate before."

Ven shook his head. "Not that I can remember."

She looked to Master Eraqus, "Seriously?"

The master shrugged. "I am not sure."

Terra said, "Now that I think about it, we've never given Ven any chocolate before, right?"

Aqua nodded. "Yeah. You're right." To Ven, she said, "You can have another one tomorrow. It's not good to eat too much at once."

"I want it NOW!" Ven shouted, slamming his fists on the dinner table.

A brief moment of silence followed.

"Please?" Ven begged.

And Aqua caved in, "Finish your dinner first and I'll give you another bar." To which, Terra said, "No, Aqua, don't always give him what he wants."

"It's just chocolate," Aqua told Terra. "It's not that serious."

That night, Ven tossed on turned in his bed. So much sweat dripped along his body that he looked like he had just stepped out of the shower. "Ch-ch-chocolate…" he mumbled in his sleep.

The next morning, he woke up bright and early as usual. He was in the kitchen by the time Aqua arrived downstairs. "Good morning, Ven," she said.

"Can I have some more chocolate?" he asked.

"Maybe later," she told him.

"No. I want it now."

"It's breakfast time. Eat some cereal instead." She reached for a bowl in the cupboard. "If you're craving something sweet, I just bought some Honey Nut Chocob-O's." Aqua poured the cereal and milk for him. With a scowl, Ven picked up the bowl and shattered it against the floor.

"I WANT CHOCOLATE!" he shouted.

"Ven? What the hell? Do you think I'm going to give you chocolate if you act like a brat?"

Silence. Eventually Ven said, "No."

"That's right. So clean it up."

And Ven did. And he poured himself some more cereal and ate quietly.

Ven was obedient during training, and he even helped Aqua clean up the kitchen after lunch. Accordingly, he begged, "Can I please get some chocolate now?"

"Sure." So she gave him a KidKat bar from her box of treasures.

He gobbled it up hungrily, shouted, "Chocolate!" and proceeded to run up and down the hallway. Aqua laughed. But Terra didn't find it so funny. "Aqua," he began, "maybe you shouldn't be giving him so much chocolate."

"It's the first bar I gave him today," she explained.

"I mean, stop giving it to him entirely. He's acting weird."

"No he's not."

Terra raised an eyebrow at her. "Seriously?"

"Okay maybe he's being a tad weird. But that's probably because he has too much sugar in his system. He'll calm down soon enough."

"I guess you're right." Terra picked a chocolate bar from her stash as well, and headed to his room. Aqua helped herself to another bar, before returning to her room to hide the rest under her bed. Little did she know that Ven was peeking into her room, watching…

So that night, when Aqua returned to her room after her bath, she found Ven passed out on her bed, holding the empty case. His lips and cheeks were coated in melted chocolate. So were his hands—and Aqua's bedsheets.

"Ven!" exclaimed Aqua. "Ven! What the hell?"

No reply.

So she shook him. "Ven?" she called out. "Ven?"

He stirred awake. After blinking a few times, he sat up. Looking down at the empty case, he frowned. He turned to Aqua. "I want more chocolate."

"You need to drink some water," she told him as she forced him to the kitchen to drink a few cups. Ven seemed really out of touch with reality. It was as if he was black-out drunk, but on chocolate. "This is insane," she told herself. "It's just chocolate. Normal, fancy chocolate. Why is he acting like this?"

Aqua then helped Ven brush his teeth and sent him to bed.

Ven awoke the next day and started screaming, "I want chocolate!" and throwing things around in his room. He kept doing that all morning, so of course it attracted the attention of Aqua, Terra and Master Eraqus. The latter asked Aqua, "What was in that chocolate?"

Aqua showed him the list of ingredients printed on the side of the box. "Cocoa, milk, nuts. Normal things."

As Master Eraqus took the box, the note that Aqua's brother had written fell onto the floor. Aqua picked it up, and that's when she noticed that there was something written on the opposite side of it, "But seriously Sis, this chocolate is enchanted. It is super easy to get addicted to it, especially if you've never had chocolate before. But that shouldn't be a problem because you love chocolate. And I love you! XOXO Rio D.V."

Aqua scowled. At that moment, Master Eraqus read the penultimate ingredient on the list. "Genie Power? Oh no, this is bad."

Terra asked, "What's Genie Powder?"

"It's a rare flavor enhancing ingredient made from the dust that gathers on magic lamps."

"Ew."

"It's an addictive delicacy," Eraqus continued. "That must be why Ven is acting like this. The more we feed his addiction, the worse it'll get."

Aqua leaned against the wall and descended to the floor in a squat position. "Oh no, this is all my fault."

Master Eraqus reassured her. "Do not fret Aqua. It was an honest mistake. And all hope is not lost. In order to break the addiction, we must deny Ven the object of his desires for three days. That means Ven is not to have chocolate. It is actually quite a simple task."

"Yeah that'll be easy," Terra agreed. But Aqua seemed very distraught. She argued, "But he's freaking out. Shouldn't we give him a little to calm him down?"

Shaking his head, Master Eraqus replied, "No. The only cure for Genie Powder addiction is three days of abstaining from the addicted substance." With a faraway look in his eyes, Master Eraqus said, "I know this, because I too once fell victim to the power of Genie Powder. I was addicted to potato chips for two weeks before Xehanort and Trisha tried to help. They locked me in my room for three long, bitter days. Oh the horrors of it all… I remember how I tore off my finger nails while scratching at the door. I remember banging my head against the wall, trying to stop the urges. I remember screaming, crying, and nearly fighting Trisha to the death, just so I could get my hands on a bag of chips." Master Eraqus clenched his fists. "The longer Ventus stays addicted, the worse his withdrawal will be. Therefore, save him the trouble now."

Terra wondered how Master had gotten himself into the situation in the first place, while Aqua nodded her head. "Alright then," she told the Master. Eraqus left, and Terra was about to leave as well, but Aqua kept an eye on Ven. So Terra told her, "You're not helping him by watching him throw a tantrum."

She didn't move. Therefore, Terra grabbed her arm and pulled her back. "Just leave him alone Aqua."

She exhaled and pouted. He patted her head. "If you need to give someone attention, I'm always here," he joked. She pushed him away and stifled a smile, saying, "You always know how to cheer me up. Thanks." As she walked away, Terra blushed. He ran his hands through his hair and said, "Every day, I get a little bit closer."

Aqua and Terra trained with Master Eraqus that afternoon. Afterwards, Aqua returned to Ven's room to check on him. Ven was sitting on his bed, clutching Mizz Piggy, and rocking back and forth, muttering, "I need it. I need chocolate." Aqua covered her mouth with her hand, and closed her eyes. But she resisted the urge to give Ven chocolate.

Soon it was the end of day one.

Day two began with Ven acting normally. "Good morning," he said to the two older students as he arrived for breakfast. "Oh! Good morning!" Aqua replied hopefully. "Is it over?"

Ven was confused. "Is what over?"

Terra ruffled Ven's hair. "You good Ven?"

Ven nodded. "Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"You were acting weird yesterday."

"Was I?" Ven shrugged it off. "Can I have French toast, Aqua?"

Aqua nodded. "Sure."

He ate breakfast as usual. That afternoon, Ven trained with them as usual. Master Eraqus and Ven clashed their keyblades so fiercely that sparks were flying. Ven shouted, "Thunder!" Master Eraqus dodged, and shot a beam of white energy at Ven. Ven rolled out of the way. But the Master preempted that move, and dashed toward Ven, hitting him in the back.

"You may be quick, Ventus, but you are also predictable," Master said. Rubbing his back, Ven stood up and nodded, saying, "That's the only useful piece of advice you've ever given me, Eraqus."

"I see you're back to your normal self then," grumbled the Master. And Aqua felt relieved.

So after lunch, when Ven approached Aqua and asked, "Can I have some chocolate?" She replied, "Sure, let's go to the store to buy some."

Luckily, Terra was passing by at that exact moment. He overheard and shouted, "Hey! Hey! No! Aqua, we need to wait three days, remember?"

She argued, "He seems fine now."

"But just to be safe, let's wait."

And she knew that he was right. Therefore, she told Ven, "Well then the day after tomorrow let's go to the candy store and buy some chocolate for you, okay Ven?"

Ven's expression dropped into one of despair. "No! Aqua, I need it now! I was a good boy all day!" He tackled her to the ground and started throwing punches while screaming, "I NEED CHOCOLATE! I NEED IT!"

Terra yanked Ven away from Aqua, and tossed the boy into his room. Aqua, quite alarmed, said, "Wow…"

"I guess it wasn't over," Terra said. "That, or he really hates you."

Thus, day two passed.

The entire day three, Ven was an emotional wreck. He wept and wailed, as if grieving the loss of a loved one. At a point, Aqua couldn't bare it any longer. She slipped away to the store to buy a chocolate bar. Upon her return, Terra was blocking the door to Ven's room.

"Let me just give him a little bit," Aqua begged as she tried to enter Ven's room.

"Don't give him any chocolate!" shouted Terra.

Armed with a KidKat bar in her hand, Aqua argued, "He's been crying all day! This is abuse! And it's all my fault!"

"No, Aqua. Calm down. He'll be fine."

She sighed. She turned her back to Terra. "Okay."

Then she dashed underneath Terra's legs and ran into Ven's room. Terra lunged, locked his arms around her upper body, and slung her backwards. His thick arms pinned her elbows to her waist. "Terra let me go!"

"No! This is getting out of hand!"

Aqua desperately shook her head. "I know, and it's all my fault! But I can't just leave him there! Look at him!"

The boy clutched Mizz Piggy and camped out in a corner of his room. His hair stood on end, his eyes were red with tears, and he was wrapped in his blanket. He shivered as if chilled by the touch of the cold, cruel world. He wept and wept and wept. "I NEED CHOCOLATE!" Ven shrieked as he used his left hand to scratch at his left shoulder. "PLEASE!"

Aqua thrashed against Terra's grasp. Terra solemnly stood his ground. "Stop spoiling him!"

"But he needs me!" insisted Aqua. She jumped and kicked and squirmed.

Terra strengthened his grip on Aqua, partly because she was fighting against him so fiercely, and partly because his arms were wrapped around her boobies. The more she thrashed, the tighter he squeezed. Finally, she called out, "Okay! Okay! I give up! Terra! Terra, stop! You're hurting me!"

But instead of easing his grip, he nestled his nose on the top of her head and inhaled the scent of her hair. He mumbled, "You smell so good."

"Whoa, what the fuck, Terra?"

He snapped out of it. "Oh… um…" he tilted his head upward. "Sorry… but I'm still not letting go." He slung her over his shoulders and carried her out of the room.

Eventually, Ventus cried himself to sleep. Only then did Terra allow Aqua to return to Ven's room. Together, they tucked him into bed. "It's over," Terra said. He reached out to caress Aqua's shoulder. "You really should stop giving him everything he wants, especially if you know it's bad for him."

She took a step away from him and replied, "I can't help it. I just want him to be happy."

Terra put his hands in his pockets and faced downward as he said, "I think it's a little more than that. I think that he reminds you of yourself, and you want to act like the mother you wish you had, and live vicariously through him."

Aqua was taken aback. "What?"

"Master told me about what happened between you and your mother and brother."

"Oh…" She rubbed one arm. "Are you mad that I didn't tell you?"

"No. But why didn't you tell me?"

"I never found a good time. Besides, I don't really want to talk about it…" She trailed off, and shook her head. "Okay, so maybe I do wish that my mother treated me the way I treat Ven. That's not a bad thing."

Terra embraced her. "No it's not a bad thing to want to make Ven happy, but you can't spoil him so much that you end up ruining him."

Aqua wiggled out of his grasp and stepped away from Terra. "I get it. I need to be more balanced." She pushed a stray lock of hair away from her face and took yet another giant step backward.

Silence.

"Terra, why did you sniff me?"

He blushed. "…Um…" He scratched the back of his head and didn't respond.

"That was really weird. Like, really, really weird," she told him.

"Sorry… I couldn't control myself. But I won't do again."

"Okay. I guess I forgive you." Yet she backed away from him and left Ven's room.

He sighed and chastised himself, "Terra, you idiot, you take one step forward and then ten leaps back…"


	31. Terra's Picture Book

Today, the weather was bad. Like, really, really bad. The wind was so violent that it sounded like a giant whale was whistling. The rain was so fierce that it sounded like a marching band was stomping on the roof. And the occasional flash of lightning, accompanied by the ground-shaking crash of thunder, scared the shit out of Ven.

Naturally, Ven tried to find sanctuary with Terra. He stood at Terra's side in the throne room, while Master Eraqus talked to them. "It hasn't rained this badly since the summer of '81," the Master said. "For three days, and three nights, the rain was so intense that we were forced to stay indoors. I was but a youth back then, perhaps Terra's age. And I, too, was a student, studying the ways of the keyblade. Due to boredom and proximity, one night, one thing led to another, and, well… What a hot, steamy, passionate night that was. Ah, Trisha! The way you moved those hips! I shall never forget it." Master Eraqus smiled. "Even to this day, the sound of such serious rain sets my soul ablaze."

Terra winced with disgust. "Um… okay?" Then he glanced down at Ven, wondering if the boy had understood that innuendo. No. Ven was picking his nose and wiping the boogers on Terra's pants. Terra swatted Ven's hand away.

Upon hearing Terra's response, Master Eraqus realized that he had said that entire monologue out loud. He had honestly thought that he was thinking to himself. So, with a slight blush on his face, Master cleared his throat and kept talking, "Terra, you should walk around the palace and place buckets anywhere that you see a leak. Ven, help him."

"Yes Master," Terra answered.

"Whatever, Old Man," Ven answered.

Eraqus walked away while complaining, "Such disrespectful, ungrateful kids. Both of them."

Terra, upset at Master's complaints, crossed his arms in front of his chest and grumbled, "Why does he hate me?"

"Perhaps he sees too much of himself in you, Terra," Ven suggested, while picking his nose. "It is often said that we clash against people that are most like ourselves."

"Oh, that's a good point Ven." Terra closed his eyes and thought about it for a moment. "But actually, I'm the opposite of that lazy bum."

"Whatever you say," Ven replied, as he flicked a booger. Anyway, they did as they were told and found several serious leaks in various places in the building. As Terra placed a bucket underneath the last one, he said to himself, "When this rain stops, I'm going to patch up the roof." Aloud to Ven, he said, "Okay, we're done."

"What's next?"

Terra shrugged. "I'm going to make a sandwich. You can do whatever you want."

"Okay." Ven tried to follow Terra to the kitchen. Terra stopped walking, picked the kid up, walked a few feet backwards, and set the kid down. "Stop following me."

"But you said I can do whatever I want."

"Anything except follow me. Go away."

Ven lowered his head as he sulked away.

After making his sandwich, Terra returned to his room. There, he found Ven rummaging under his bed. Terra set down his sandwich and yanked the boy upwards by the back of his shirt. "Why are you in my room?"

"I was looking for chocolate," Ven replied. Although his addiction had subsided, Ventus was still very fond of chocolate.

"Under my bed? Why would I keep chocolate under my bed?"

"Yesterday I overheard you saying, 'Time for the good stuff', and I saw you reach under your bed."

Terra's face flushed. "I wasn't talking about chocolate. Why would you assume that I was talking about chocolate?"

"The day before that, you said, 'Time for some sweet, sweet hentai.'"

"No. Hentai is not chocolate."

"I figured that out now," Ven replied. "Hentais are picture books." He raised the book that he was holding, "But they're weird."

 _Ven stumbled into my stash_ , Terra realized. And he panicked, because he was definitely not prepared to have the talk about "the locks and the keys" with Ven. So Terra set Ven down and said, "That's because you're too young to understand."

"No I'm not!" Ven argued. He flipped backwards a few pages in the book. "This is a woman. And," he flipped a few pages forward, "she's obviously doing something to make this guy angry because," he flipped forward a few more pages, "he attacks her."

Terra snatched the book away. "He's not attacking her. He's making her feel good."

"But he poked a hole through her body with his pee pee," Ven argued. "He's trying to kill her, obviously."

Terra's eyes narrowed and he shook his head slowly. "No. Women already have that hole there."

"Then where does their pee pee go?" the younger boy asked, sarcastically.

Terra rubbed his forehead with frustration. "They don't have one."

Ven was even more sarcastic. "So how do they pee?"

"You're too dumb to understand this! So go back to your room and forget about it!"

"I'm not dumb!"

"Get out of my room, you dumb stupid idiot!"

"FINE!" So Ven stormed out from the room.

Ven started to cry as he stomped down the hallway. "I'm not stupid! Stupid Terra! He's stupid! Stupid, stupid Terra!" He tried to wipe away the tears, but they fell as steadily as the rain outside. "Now Terra hates me." His vision became muddled. "I don't want Terra to hate me."

He was too busy feeling sorry for himself to notice that Aqua was walking down the hall as well. "Ven?" she called out. She hurried to him, stooped over, and reached out to wipe some tears from his face. "What's wrong?"

Ven sniffled. "Terra is mean."

"Aw, I'm sorry." She pulled him into a hug. "Terra has bad days sometimes. Don't worry."

When she hugged him, his face was pressed against her chest. Thus, Ven remembered that Aqua was, indeed, a woman. So he maneuvered his hand to touch what he thought would be her pee pee. She jumped back and said, "Whoa there, Ven, that's not a place where you should touch someone."

He looked up at her, his big, blue, brilliant eyes glimmering with the tears. "Do you not have a pee pee?"

Aqua, too, was not ready to have the talk about "the locks and the keys". She bit her lip, turned around, and cringed. "What do I tell him?" she mumbled to herself. After a brief moment of panic, she faced Ven and answered, "Yes, but it's different than yours. That's why I'm a girl and you're a boy, physically."

The expression on Ven's face reminded Aqua of someone who had just been slapped in the face. "So you have a hole there?!"

Aqua's jaw dropped. "Um… well…" She felt her face flush. "Yeah…"

"Who poked the hole there?"

"Let's stop talking about this, Ven," Aqua replied. "Please?" She petted his head and walked away briskly.

Ven couldn't believe it. He began to pace back and forth in the hallway. For a long while, he contemplated his next action. Then, with a stoic look of determination, he walked to the front door. As soon as he opened it, he was battered with a firehose spray of rain. A flash of lightning nearly blinded him, and the thunder clap caused him to lose his balance and fall onto his butt.

He was terrified.

But for the sake of knowledge, he persevered out in to the rain.

About five minutes later, Aqua was sitting at a table, quietly typing something on her laptop, while listening to music on her cellphone.

Out of the blue, "AQQQUUAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Ven screamed. "AAAAAAQQQUUAAAAAAAAAA!" He approached her. She gasped.

His clothing, his face, his shoes, his everything, were caked with thick, brown, sticky mud. It looked as if someone had dipped Ven into a vat of chocolate. With each footstep, he left a mud print on the floor. Aqua was absolutely flabbergasted. And in that moment of confusion, he shouted, "TAG YOU'RE IT!" and tackled her to the ground.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?" Aqua shouted as she tried to push Ven off of her. But he clung tight and rubbed his muddy body all over her. They wrestled on the floor.

Within a minute, Aqua, too, became a mud monster. When Ven finally released her, he sat up and grinned from ear to ear. "That was fun. Now let's take a bath together, Aqua."

She sat up, and resisted the urge to slap him. "Is that why you did this? To force me to take a bath with you?" She wiped a glob of mud from her eyes. "You could have just asked me!"

"Oh."

Groaning, she stood up and pulled him up as well. "Let's go."

And thus, innocent little Ventus found himself sitting naked on a stool in one of the palace's many bathrooms, while Aqua tried to wash the mud out of his hair. The bathroom was the type where one washes his or herself before soaking in the tub (basically a Japanese Style bath). Frankly, it felt good to have Aqua wash his hair, but Ven didn't want to admit that. And, unfortunately, she was wearing a towel wrapped around her torso to cover her lady parts.

When she pulled a twig out of Ven's hair, Aqua asked, "How did you get so dirty?"

"I rolled around in the mud outside."

"Why did you…?" She decided to drop the topic, and instead focus on scrubbing his skin. And she did not hesitate to scrub hard.

"OW!"

"Stop whining. This is your fault."

Ven pulled away from her. "Stop!"

"I'm trying to clean you up!"

"You're trying to scrape off my skin!"

Aqua placed her other hand on her face in frustration. "Can we please hurry this up?"

Ven pouted. Aqua kept scrubbing. As the dirt fell off, she noticed something new about Ven. His entire body was etched with a multitude of faded scars. They were faint remnants of old injuries. Some of them were dismissible. Small discolorations on his knees, arms, shins and elbows, probably from falling or scraping. Perhaps his previous master was a bit too rough with the training.

But many of the scars were not dismissible. "What happened to you here, Ven?" she asked, pointing to the remnants of a startling gash that ran along the left side of his torso, from his lowest rib to his hipbone.

He shrugged.

"And on your back?" she traced along some of the zig-zagged groves in between his shoulder blades.

Ven shrugged.

"What about here?" she pointed to a scar across his collar bone.

Ven slapped her hand away. "I don't know!" He turned around to face her. "And why are you wearing a towel? You should take it off."

"Huh?"

He shrugged. "You might as well, right?"

Aqua realized that this entire situation was Ven's convoluted plan to see her naked. And that's when she wondered if Ven wasn't as sweet and innocent as she thought. And that changed her whole attitude towards taking a bath with him. She realized that this could actually be a VERY inappropriate situation. For instance, she would never have taken a bath with Master Eraqus or Terra.

 _But that's different._ She tried to convince herself. _Ven is just a kid. I didn't think twice about it because I see him as a little brother. He's a twelve-year-old boy who doesn't even know that girls have a… oh… Is that why he wants to see me naked?_ "Oh…" she said aloud as she realized that he wanted to see her naked solely for the purpose of learning about the opposite sex.

She sighed. She definitely needed to have the talk about "the locks and keys" with him. So she said, "Listen, Ven, you're not supposed to ask to see girls naked. I understand that you're curious but—"

He ignored her and snatched her towel away. She slapped him. Really hard. Like, really, really hard. It echoed along the walls of the bathroom. All the frustration that he had caused her today was retaliated in that slap. It was definitely going to leave a mark on his face. "You can't do that Ven," Aqua chided him.

Ven, his head turned in the direction of the force of the slap, slowly brought his hand toward his affected cheek, dazed. His eyes lost their shine, and for a long moment his mind seemed to drift somewhere else. She noticed. "Ven?"

He snapped back to reality, and immediately stumbled away from her. His eyes doubled in size and his body tensed, as if ready to run for his life. "Please don't hurt me!" he whimpered, while curling up, shielding himself with his arms and trembling. He started crying.

Aqua felt guilty. Maybe she shouldn't have hit him so hard. She sighed. "I'm sorry Ven. I shouldn't have slapped you. That was mean."

"You always say that. You always hurt me." His voice broke as he sobbed. "You always hurt me."

Aqua was speechless for a moment. And that's when she pieced two and two together. The scars made sense to her. "Oh. Oh no. Oh, no, Ven, seriously. I'm sorry," Aqua insisted. "I promise I won't do it again. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

That seemed to calm him down. It took several minutes, but he stopped crying and wiped his face. After another few minutes of silence, the shine returned to his eyes. He blinked a few times. He seemed a little confused. "Aqua?" he mumbled.

"Yeah?" she answered.

He looked around. Then he took a good look at her. "So you don't have a pee pee..."

And Aqua felt really weird about the entire situation. Nonetheless, she gently pulled him toward her so that she could finish scrubbing him.

After their bath, Aqua found a kid-friendly online video explaining the differences between males and females, as well as the process of reproduction. They watched it together on her laptop.

"Oh," Ven mumbled when the video finished. He looked to Aqua. "And so when that thing goes in that place, it feels good?"

Aqua blushed. "Um, I don't know," She admitted. "I've never actually done anything like that with anyone."

"Terra said that the lady in his picture book liked it."

Aqua needed to take her time to process that sentence. "The lady in Terra's picture book?"

"Yeah. He calls it the good stuff, but it's not chocolate. Do you have any chocolate Aqua? I really want some chocolate."

So Aqua gave Ven a chocolate bar and sent him on his way. Part of her wanted to confront Terra about the 'picture book' that he had shown Ven, but part of her was too exhausted to deal with Terra, so she decided to just mop up the mud prints and take a nap.


	32. Complete Reversal

Aqua was standing around in the kitchen, drinking her morning coffee when Terra and Ven walked in. Terra complained, "Stop following me around."

"Then stay in one place," replied Ven.

"This kid is such a smartass," grumbled Terra. To Aqua, he said, "Good morning," and gave her a hug.

She replied, "Morning," as she patted him on the back. He squeezed her tighter and lifted her off of the ground, slightly. She giggled. "Set me down before I spill this hot coffee."

"The coffee can't be as hot as you," he told her.

"You and your stupid compliments," she said with a coy smile. "You're so cheesy."

Ven piped in, saying, "Where's my breakfast, Aqua?"

She replied, "Coming right up. Let me go Terra." But Terra strengthened his grip and said, "He can't talk to you like that."

"It's just a phase," she assured him.

He stated, "No, it's bad behavior that needs to be corrected."

"You're too harsh on him."

"You're too nice to him. He's going to grow up to be a useless idiot if you keep spoiling him."

"Well he'll grow up to be depressed if he doesn't have a loving, supportive childhood."

Ven raised his hand. "Either way, I still need my breakfast."

Terra, still gripping Aqua in a hug, said, "Make it yourself Ven."

Aqua, trying to squirm out of Terra's grasp, said, "I'll make it in just a second, Ven. What do you want?"

"Sunny-side up eggs, toast, and bacon." The boy sat down at the island bar and watched Aqua and Terra as they struggled for about a minute. Finally, Aqua said, "Terra. I'm serious. Put me down."

"I'm serious when I say that Ven needs to learn to take care of himself."

"Dammit Terra, I'm giving you until the count of three or I'll spill this coffee on you. One. Two."

He let her go. "Fine. But next time he'll make his own breakfast. And he should start doing chores too."

"He will, eventually! Let him be a kid for a little while!" she fussed as she started making Ven's breakfast. "Don't force him to grow up too fast."

"Don't allow him to grow up too slow is all I'm saying." Terra sat down beside Ven. "And if you're going to make breakfast for him, then can you make some for me too?"

Aqua shot Terra a dirty look. But she ended up making breakfast for both of them.

During training that day, Ven and Aqua fought an intense practice battle, while Terra did the same with Master Eraqus. Aqua was on the defensive, because Ven was so quick with his attacks. She focused on parrying his strikes and avoiding his blows.

"You know that you can hit him, Aqua," Terra critiqued her, while dodging one of Master Eraqus's attacks. Master Eraqus slammed his keyblade against Terra's and added, "Yes, Aqua, put Ven on the defensive."

"Um, well," she replied, while jumping over one of Ven's attacks, "I don't want to hurt him."

Ven replied, "Someone as weak as you can't hurt me."

"But Ven…"

Master Eraqus blocked an attack from Terra as he said, "It's okay to hurt him a little. This is a sparring match after all."

Ven nodded in agreement. So she too, nodded. She rushed toward Ven. He swung his blade, but she did a triple flip in the air and landed behind him. With a quick turn, she smacked Ven on the back with her keyblade and he fell forward. "Argh!" Ven grumbled as he laid on the grass.

"Oh no, was that too rough?" she asked.

Standing up, the boy placed his hand on the area where Aqua had struck him. "I've survived worse." Ven resumed his fighting position. "Let's keep going."

Aqua winced. "Master, maybe this is too hard for Ven."

"Don't insult me woman," the kid shouted. He ran toward Aqua and continued to fight her with all of his strength.

That evening, after dinner and a bath, Aqua and Ven were in the living room, watching television together. She was sitting beside him on the sofa and said, "After this next show ends, you're going to sleep, Ven."

Ven, dressed in his pajamas and holding his Mizz Piggy doll, said, "I go to sleep when I want to."

Terra entered the living room. "What are you guys watching?"

"Right now they're on commercials," answered Ven, "but this new show called _Pete's Adventures in Interspace_ is about to start. It looks interesting."

"Cool." Terra picked up Ven, sat him on the opposite edge of the couch, and then sat in between Ven and Aqua. Terra then leaned his head against Aqua's shoulders. "I'll join you guys then."

Aqua giggled. "The more the merrier."

Terra looked up into her eyes. "It'd be better if it were just me and you."

Ven said, "No, it'd be better if it were just me and you, Terra. Aqua can go be dumb somewhere else."

"Why does this kid hate you?" Terra asked.

Aqua shook her head. "He doesn't hate me. That's how he shows his affection."

"SHHH! It's starting," Ven declared as he snuggled up against Terra.

So they all watched the cartoon together; Ven resting on Terra, and Terra resting on Aqua. Master Eraqus walked by, noticed the three of them, and smiled, saying, "They are such close friends." And he walked away.

At some point during the show, Ven got super engrossed, and laid on his belly on the floor, close to the television, using Mizz Piggy as a pillow to rest his head. That left Terra and Aqua on the sofa. And Terra saw an opportunity to get a little closer to Aqua. He ever so slightly shifted his position so that he could wrap an arm around her shoulders. He took a deep breath. She smelled like lavender. She didn't seem to notice. Score one for Terra.

He scooted closer to her so as to press his cheek against her cheek. That's when she noticed. They met eyes. With his free hand, Terra brushed his fingers against her cheek. "I really like you, Aqua," he whispered.

"Stop it," she whispered in reply. She turned away from him. But she was smiling. Terra nuzzled his head in the crevice between her head and her shoulder. "Can I get a kiss?"

"Terra, stop," she said, trying to push him away.

"Just a quick one."

"Why are you doing this?"

He shrugged. "I guess I'm feeling bold today."

Slowly she met his gaze once more. Her cheeks colored pink with a slight blush as she said, "You're so annoying sometimes."

"Don't you like that about me?"

"Maybe."

"Just one kiss, Aqua," he begged.

"Just one," she said as she leaned forward. But right before she pressed her lips against Terra's—

"Ew what are you doing?" Ven suddenly asked. The cartoon was on commercial break, so he had broken out of the trance of the TV. Aqua, her face reddening, quickly pinched Terra's nose. She said, "There was something on Terra's face. Haha."

Terra, his face reddening, said, "Watch the damn TV Ven. I'm trying to have a moment with Aqua."

"You don't have moments with me," grumbled Ven as he returned to his seat beside Terra on the sofa.

"I'll take a moment to beat your ass," Terra grumbled.

Aqua pinched Terra's nose again. "Don't you dare say that to Ven!" Upon releasing his nose, she swatted Terra's arms off from her shoulders, crossed her arms in front of her chest, and adjusted her position so that she could focus on the television.

Terra hit himself on the forehead in frustration. To make matters worse, Ven sprawled across Terra's lap and asked, "How do you like the show so far?"

"I wasn't watching the show," Terra viciously retorted as he shooed Ven away. "Stop bothering me."

For some reason, that statement broke Ven's heart. "Oh…" Ven clutched Mizz Piggy to his chest. "Okay. Never mind." He moved away from Terra while tears pooled up in his eyes. Although the kid tried to blink them back, a few slid down his cheeks. "I don't know why Terra doesn't like me."

Terra looked Ven right in the eyes and said, "Because you're a brat." Then he faced Aqua, determined to woo her into a kiss. But the look of pure disgust that seized her face informed Terra that she was not to be wooed again tonight. She yelled, "How could you? Apologize to him right now!"

A quick roar of frustration escaped Terra's mouth. He leaned forward, so that his forehead touched his knees. And he realized, _If I want her, I'll need to tolerate Ven's nonsense._ So Terra sat up, placed Ven on his lap, and said, "Just kidding, Ven! I can't believe you fell for that!"

The way Ven's eyes lit up actually made Terra feel really guilty for hurting the boy's feelings in the first place. Ven asked, "Really? You were just joking?"

"Yeah." Terra rested his chin atop Ven's head. "You're annoying, but you're adorable. I can't seriously be angry at you. You're my friend, Ven."

"My friend? I can have friends?"

Terra nodded. "Yup. Aqua and I are your friends."

Ven smiled from ear to ear. "That was a mean joke, but I'll forgive you, because you're my friend too, Terra."

The show started playing on the television again. Aqua rested her head against Terra's shoulder. And Terra smiled.


	33. The Moogle Dance

One day, Aqua was sitting in the living room, doing something on her laptop. Terra happened to walk by behind her. He also happened to notice her screen background. It was a picture of her younger self, dressed in a leotard and a frilly pink tutu. Her blue hair was pulled back into long twintails. On her face was the widest grin Terra had ever seen. She was missing her front two teeth.

Leaning forward, so that his chin rested in the crevice between her neck and her shoulder, Terra commented, "That's a cute picture." She shrugged him off, and giggled. "Stop that. It tickles."

"Were you a ballerina or something?"

Aqua nodded. "Yup. I took dance lessons since I was a very little girl. This was one of my recitals. I think I was seven years old, and I was the lead in _The Nutcracker._ " She smiled. "Dad was so proud."

In the picture, Aqua was standing beside an older blonde kid, who was wearing thick glasses and a sweater vest. He had a bowl cut. Terra pointed to him. "Who's that?"

"My older brother, Rio," Aqua answered. She pointed to the moogle floating behind her in the picture. "And that's my dad. I think my mom took the picture."

Terra was silent. He blinked a few times, rubbed his eyes, and leaned closer to the computer screen. "Where's your dad?"

"Him," Aqua said, pointing once again to the moogle in the picture. He was a cute little white furball, with a giant pink nose, and a light blue pompom puff sprouting from the top of his head. His wings were dark purple.

"The moogle?"

"Yeah. I'm half-moogle."

Terra gave Aqua the side-eye. "Stop joking."

Blushing, Aqua jammed her elbow into his face. "I am! Don't make fun of me! I know I don't look like it!"

Terra held his nose as he stumbled backward. "Ouch!"

She shut her laptop and stood up. "You're just like my cousins! They would always fly around me and pull my hair and tell me that I'm not moogle enough." She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "My dad's side of the family never accepted me and Rio."

"Sorry. I didn't mean to bring up such a sore subject."

Her entire face was red from the lingering anger. She lied, "It's not a sore subject."

"You sure about that?"

She tapped her foot rapidly and closed her eyes. "Yeah. It's not like I care about my moogle ancestry. It's not like I spent an entire summer learning the traditional moogle dance of health and good luck, only to be told by my stupid aunt that I'm not allowed to perform in the Moogle Festival because I look 'too human'."

"Traditional moogle dance?"

Aqua nodded and proceeded to demonstrate. She stepped from side to side, spun around, clapped, spun around, kicked her feet, shook her arms, spun around, clapped, jumped up, clapped, and thrust out her arms and finished with a clap.

Master Eraqus just so happened to walk by, and he saw it. "Ah, is that the traditional moogle dance?"

Aqua nodded. "Yup."

Terra asked, "It took you a whole summer to learn that?"

"That's just a small part of it. And I was six years old," she retorted.

Now Master Eraqus was curious. "Why did you learn the traditional moogle dance?"

"I'm half-moogle."

Master Eraqus blinked a few times. Then he put a finger in his left ear, as if to scrape out some earwax. "I'm sorry I don't think I heard you correctly, Aqua."

At that point, she covered her face with her hands and groaned. "I said I'm half-moogle."

The Master looked very perplexed. "Perhaps my hearing is failing me. Did you say that you are half-moogle?"

She nodded.

"Stop joking," said the Master.

Aqua frowned, picked up her laptop and trudged away, while shouting, "You two are the worst!"

Master Eraqus looked to Terra and asked, "Is she serious?"

Terra nodded. "Yeah, she's serious… But can a moogle even, well, you know, with a human?"

Master Eraqus and Terra pondered it for a while before consulting the internet. They found a few blogs where moogle-human-mixed families chronicled their life experiences.

They were actually quite enlightened that day.


	34. Chuckie

**Author's Note: If the previous chapters haven't destroyed all semblance of cannon in this story so far, this chapter definitely will.**

It was evening time, and Ven, Terra and Aqua gathered in the living room to watch the latest episode of Ven's favorite cartoon, _Pete's Adventures in Interspace._ Although he had just taken a bath and eaten dinner, Ven had enough energy to roll around on the floor while clutching his Mizz Piggy doll.

Aqua chastised him, "Stop that. You'll get dirty again."

"Shut up Aqua," he retorted.

"Ven, I'm serious," she insisted.

"Mind your own business. Mizz Piggy and I are excited."

Terra intervened. "Ven, don't sass Aqua." His face was stern. "She's only saying what's best for you. Do you understand?"

Ven pouted. "Fine. Whatever."

Aqua, who was sitting next to Terra on the sofa, scooted over and patted the seat between them. "Come sit here, Ven." And Ven obeyed. He leaned against Terra's shoulder and said, "I think Pete is going to finally unlock his special power this episode."

"Maybe," Terra replied, patting Ven's head.

When the show started, the theme song played, and Ven got up and started dancing to it. Ven ended up sitting on the floor in front of the television, immersed in the show. During the first commercial break, the boy jumped around and said, "I hate commercials!" He glared at Aqua. "Why can't you get me TVStream?" TVStream was an online service where anyone can watch popular shows and movies on demand (basically their universe's version of Netflix).

"That is not my job," Aqua told him. "Ask Master Eraqus."

"That useless old man? No way."

Terra added, "He wouldn't get you anything because you're so rude to him."

Ven shrugged, and returned his attention to the television. And that's when he saw it. A grey mouse wearing a skateboarder's outfit, complete with a backwards cap, an oversized shirt, shorts and sneakers. "Hi Kids, I'm Chuckie! And I have the best place ever! I just opened up my most fun funnest fun-fun arcade downtown and I want YOU to visit!" The screen showed a dimly lit room filled with flashing arcade games, a ball pit and tons of little kids running around. "Play games to win tickets! Exchange tickets for prizes! And I have TONS OF PIZZA!" The kids on the television were eating pizza. "YUM! Stop by my place," Chuckie continued. "That's Chuckie Cheese's!"

(Basically it's their universe's version of Chuck E. Cheese's.)

Eagerly, Ven turned to Aqua and Terra. A smile spread across his face. "Can I go?"

"You are way too old for Chuckie Cheese's," Aqua said. "I think it's for kids age ten and younger."

"I thought he was ten," Terra said.

"No he's twelve."

"I'm twelve?!" Ven exclaimed at the same time that Terra shouted, "He's twelve?!"

Concerned, Aqua asked, "You didn't know your own age, Ven?"

Ven avoided the question. "What does it matter how old I am anyway? I want to go to Chuckie Cheese's! It looks fun!"

Aqua told him, "After a certain age, you get too old to do certain things."

"That's not fair!" Ven whined. "I want to go to Chuckie Cheese'! I want to go to Chuckie Cheese's! If I don't go to Chuckie Cheese's I'll scream! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—"

His show started playing on the television. Ven stopped his tantrum so he could watch. And he forgot about Chuckie Cheese's for the rest of the night.

However, the next day, during training, Ven wasn't paying attention when Master Eraqus called on him, "Ven, demonstrate for us your mini magic."

"Huh?"

"Demonstrate your mini spell, Ventus," Master Eraqus repeated. "Terra will be your target."

"Oh, okay." He pointed his keyblade at Terra. "Mini," he mumbled. Nothing happened. Ventus sighed. Eraqus asked, "Is something the matter?"

"No."

Terra jumped into the conversation, "Are you still upset about Chuckie Cheese?"

Ven shrugged and pouted. "Maybe."

"Chuckie Cheese?" the master repeated. "What's that?"

"None of your business, Old Man!" Ven shouted. Aqua explained, "It's an arcade for little kids. Ven wants to go."

"Well then take him," Eraqus suggested. "I can't stand his pouting."

Aqua shook her head. "It's for very little kids. Not twelve-year-olds."

"Oh." The Master understood the situation. "Ven, you need to act your age. You do realize that you'll be thirteen next week, right?"

"I'll be thirteen in next week?!" Ven exclaimed.

"You didn't know your own birthday?!" Master Eraqus exclaimed.

"No," Ven admitted. "I don't remember anything about myself. That means there are almost thirteen years of my life that I don't remember. And it's really frustrating. Was I really alive before I came here, if I can't remember it?" He closed his eyes. "Does my earlier life even matter if I feel like I've always been here? The memories that I've made with you guys are the only memories I have, after all…" A sad aura engulfed the boy as he contemplated the quality of his existence.

Master Eraqus tried to calm Ven by saying, "You can assign the amount of importance to give to each memory, Ven. And you can determine the weight that each holds in your heart."

"Stop spouting nonsense, Eraqus," Ven retorted.

Master Eraqus raised his voice. "Enough of this disrespect!"

Ven turned up his nose and scoffed. "Anyway, I don't care how old I am. I want to go to Chuckie Cheese!"

Aqua pulled out her cellphone. "Why don't we compromise? What if we take you to an arcade for older kids to celebrate your birthday? Does that make sense?" She searched online for nearby arcades. "There's one called Jake and Booster's downtown." She showed her cellphone to Ven. He scrolled through the pictures of the arcade and nodded. "Okay!"

So on the day of Ven's 13th birthday, Aqua, Terra, Ven and Master Eraqus drove down the mountain to Jake and Booster's arcade downtown. The entire drive, Ven was in the backseat, bouncing up and down, chanting, "I'm excited! I'm excited! I'm excited!"

Jake and Booster's arcade was a large, two story, square building. In the center was a ten-foot-tall ball pit. The majority of the space was an arcade, with several dozen different types of games. Kids could play those games by purchasing credits to load onto a J&B card and swiping the card to activate the game. Upon winning games, electronic tickets were loaded onto their cards, and those tickets could be used to exchange for prizes in the prize center.

A portion of the building was a dining area, where patrons could relax and order food. It was in this area that Master Eraqus and his students celebrated Ven's birthday with a chocolate cake adorned with thirteen candles. "Make a wish as you blow out the candles," Aqua told him as she took a picture on her cellphone.

"I wish you'd stop bothering me," Ven told her.

"If you say it aloud, the opposite comes true," she teased.

"What?! No, no, I take it back!"

Master Eraqus and Terra laughed. After eating a ton of cake, Ven had more than enough energy to play games. Master Eraqus loaded a J&B card for Ven with 200 credits—more than enough for 2-hours of play. He handed it to Ven and said, "Alright, go have fun. But, be careful Ven. Don't run off without telling me or Aqua."

"Whatever, Old Man," Ven responded as he took the card and beamed. "And thanks. I really appreciate it." He ran to Terra and grabbed his hand. "Let's go play Terra!"

"Of course, Birthday Boy," Terra told the kid as they walked away.

Smiling, Master Eraqus said, "That brat can be endearing." He sat down at the table and immediately fell asleep.

Terra and Ven walked around the brightly lit arcade, which was populated by kids in their early teens. Children as young as eleven years old, and as old as sixteen, were running around, shouting happily. The arcade games were meant for younger teens. There was virtual motorbike racing, virtual dancing, rope climbing, first person shooters, and so on… After playing the first few games with Ven, Terra, a nineteen-year-old, felt out of place. "Uh, Ven, maybe you should use this time to make some new friends. Friends your own age."

"Friends my own age?" the boy repeated.

Terra gestured all around him. "Look, there's so many kids just like you."

Ven fidgeted. "How do I even talk to them?"

"All you do is go up to them and say, 'Hi I'm Ven! Can I join?' It's that simple."

"What if they say no?"

"It doesn't matter. There are tons of kids here. Ask someone else."

"Really?" Ven seemed really worried.

"Yeah!" Terra tried to seem really excited.

"Okay. I'll try." Ven timidly inched toward a group of two boys and one girl who were playing a karaoke game. Terra watched as Ven introduced himself to them. One boy in the group shook Ven's hand and handed Ven the microphone for the game. And Ven started singing with them. Terra exhaled in relief. With Ven preoccupied by other kids, Terra was free to do whatever he wanted.

So Terra left Jake and Boosters. Standing outside, he grumbled, "Man, I wish I was a kid again. Ven gets so spoiled. Especially by Aqua. I want to get spoiled by Aqua." He walked down the street. Terra was probably going to wander around for a while, but he saw a group of guys around his age, who were squatting delinquent-style in the ally beside the building. They were smoking something that smelled interesting. So he went into the alley with them.

"Care to share?" Terra asked, squatting down with their group. One guy passed him a blunt. "Thanks," said Terra. He took a long drag.

Meanwhile Ven was playing the karaoke game with those kids. And he was losing badly, because he didn't know any of the latest popular songs. "You're so bad at this!" teased the boy who had given Ven the microphone. He was a blonde whose short spiky hair faded at the sides. He wore a white t-shirt with the picture of a Super Mario 1-up mushroom on it, dark-green camo shorts, and hi-top sneakers.

Ven claimed, "I'm good at other games! I'll beat anyone in CartCart Racers!"

"No way," said the second boy, a chubby kid who wore an oversized red jersey with the number 2 written on it. He wore blue jeans and sneakers. His brunette hair was pushed upward with a red, white and blue headband. "Hayner is the best at CartCart Racers."

Hayner, the blonde kid, nodded. "I'm the best in the city! I set the record for the fastest time earlier this summer."

Ven smirked. "I just beat it today."

"Lies."

Ven beckoned them toward the game and showed them the new record that he had set just ten minutes earlier. Hayner's jaw dropped. While Hayner was in shock, the other kids introduced themselves. "I'm Olette, by the way," said the girl, who was wearing a simple orange sundress and brown sandals. Her light brown hair was short and curled upwards at the end. "But don't call me Omelet! It's not funny."

Ven rolled his eyes and grumbled, "Girls are so annoying."

"What was that?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at him.

"Nothing," Ven said, backing away.

"I'm Pence!" said the brown-haired boy. "I haven't seen you around before. What school do you go to?"

Ven answered, "I don't go to school."

"What?!" Olette and Pence exclaimed in unison. Pence continued, "Lucky! I wish I didn't have to go to school. That means no summer homework."

Olette interrogated Ven, "What do you do all day if you don't go to school?"

"I'm training to become a keyblade master."

"What's that?"

"Uh… well…" Ven stopped to think about it. "It means that I'm strong enough to do really awesome things with the keyblade." He held out his hand and his keyblade appeared in it.

"Whoa!" Pence and Olette said in unison. Hayner, still traumatized over losing his record, grabbed Ven's shoulders and said, "I demand a rematch!"

Ven and Hayner sat in the seats of the racing game, grabbed the steering wheels and swiped their J&B cards. They selected their characters, selected the race course, and revved up their engines. The countdown flashed on the screen.

3\. 2. 1. Go! The two boys slammed on the acceleration and drove their virtual cars along a perilous fiery path. They avoided pitfalls, jumped over ramps, and raced past obstacles. They were neck and neck as they neared the finish line of the final lap. The race was so close that the game paused for a second… before declaring Ven the new winner! And Ven had beaten his previous record by half a second.

Thus, Hayner accepted defeat. "Fine, you beat me." With a smile, he added, "But I bet I can beat you in Whack-Attack!"

Ven, smiling, said, "I bet you can't!" as he followed his new friends to the game.

What was Aqua doing in the meantime? She was hiding in the ball pit. Every fifteen minutes or so, she would jump up and shout, "MURDER!" to scare whoever happened to be nearby. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" the kids would scream. After all, they hadn't been expecting a seventeen-year-old girl to be jumping out of the pit. She had frightened several victims today. And each time, she laughed her heart out and slunk back into the brightly colored balls.

Upon exhausting all their credits, Ven and his friends went to the prize center to exchange their tickets. The walls of the prize center were lined with all sorts of goodies and knick-knacks. Stuffed animals, toys, board games, accessories, and candies. Olette picked up a deck of Yu-Gee-Oh cards. "Hayner, can you believe that they still sell these?"

Hayner laughed. "No way. These are so old that my dad has them."

Pence looked at their selection of headbands. He pointed to the one he was wearing. "Guys, they still have the same kind that I got last time."

Ven looked at the stuffed animals. "I can't betray Mizz Piggy," he said to himself.

"Nothing good is here!" complained Hayner. "But I guess that we don't really come to the arcade for prizes—" He stopped talking when he saw a glittering gold trophy, adorned with four multi-colored glass orbs, stashed away on the highest shelf behind the ticket exchange cashier. A toothy grin spread across his face. "Guys look at that trophy!" He pointed to it.

"Oh it's so pretty!" said Olette.

Pence agreed. "It looks magical."

"How much does it cost?" asked Ven as he tiptoed to see the price tag. "It's over 9000!"

"It's 9999 tickets," Olette clarified. "I only have 2317."

Pence chimed in, "I have 1672."

Hayner said, "I have 3112."

Ven said, "I have 3249." Doing the mental math in his head, he said, "That's more than enough to buy it if we put our tickets together."

They all cheered. And after buying the trophy, Hayner broke apart the colored balls and handed one to each of them. Each of the four held their color up to the light and admired its sparkle. Ven then cuddled his close to his heart and said, "I'll treasure this forever."

"Me too!" declared Hayner.

"Same here," agreed Olette.

"Yup!" Pence decided. "By the way, Ven, do you have a cell phone? Let's exchange numbers."

Ven shook his head. "No I don't."

Olette said, "Aw! How are we supposed to keep in touch?"

"I have an idea," said Hayner. He grabbed a napkin and found a pen to scribble down some phone numbers. "I'll give you our numbers, and when you get your own phone, you can text us!"

"Or if he has a landline phone, he can call," Pence noted.

"Calling is for losers," Hayner retorted. "I only text." He gave Ven the napkin and ruffled Ven's hair. "So make sure to get a cell phone as quickly as possible, okay?"

Ven nodded. After saying goodbye to his new friends, Ven returned to the table where Master Eraqus was sleeping. "Master?" Ven said, shaking the old man.

"Huh?"

"Wake up Eraqus. It's time to go."

"What time is it?" asked Eraqus as he rubbed his eyes. "Did you finish playing?"

Ven nodded. "Look what I got." He showed the glass ball to Eraqus.

"That's nice." Master stood up, yawned and stretched his arms. "Where's Aqua and Terra? Find them and tell them it's time to go."

Ven found Aqua in the ball pit, and together they found Terra hanging out around the outside of the building. The four of them went home. During the drive back, Ven closed his eyes, murmured, "Hayner, Pence, Omelet," and drifted off to sleep.


	35. Ven's Delivery Service

One night, the now 13-year-old Ven was hanging out in Terra's room. The two were doing nothing in particular—Terra was playing a game on his cellphone, and Ven was reading a book of magic spells. Out of the blue, Terra exclaimed, "FUCK!" and he threw his cell phone at the wall. "Stupid P.E.K.K.A!"

Startled, Ven asked, "What's wrong?"

"I lost again at Clash Royally!" Terra fumed.

"What's that?"

"It a fast-paced, head-to-head, strategy-based, quick-thinking, action-packed cell-phone game."

"Can I play?"

"Actually, I probably just broke my phone," Terra admitted. He trotted over to the poor piece of machinery. Other than a large crack down the center of the screen, the phone was fine. "I need to get this fixed," said Terra.

Ven whined, "So I can't play?"

"Nope. Go to sleep."

"Fine." Ven closed his book and headed to his room.

The next day, Terra went to the mall. He returned with a brand new phone. He was bragging to Aqua about it that afternoon. "I was due for an upgrade so I got the Y-Phone X. It's the newest model."

"Cool," said a disinterested Aqua, as she sat at the dinner table, and typed something on her laptop. Ven, who was standing beside Terra, whined, "I want a phone! Why can't I have a phone? Aqua, I want a phone!"

So Aqua asked Terra, "Did you trade in your old phone?"

He shook his head. "No. I got it fixed, so I'm probably gonna sell it."

"Why not give it to Ven?"

"If he wants it, he'll have to buy it."

She batted her eyelashes at him. "Please be nice and give it to Ven."

He put his face close to hers, so that his nose tapped her nose. "Give me a kiss and maybe I will."

Aqua blushed, pushed Terra's face away, and said, "Never mind, Ven, you need to buy it yourself."

Ven tensed, and his cheeks colored red. He twiddled his fingers. "Um…" Then he took a deep breath and exhaled. "Okay, fine." Ven puckered his lips.

Aqua burst into laughter. Terra quickly said, "No, no, no, I don't want you to kiss me. I want munny from you."

"Where do I get munny?"

"Find a job."

Aqua rolled her eyes. "Terra, what kind of job can a 13-year-old get?"

"Odd jobs here and there. Delivering papers, hanging flyers, cleaning up junk. But if you don't want to work, Ven, maybe you can ask Master Eraqus about getting a cellphone."

Ven nodded. He wandered up to Master Eraqus's office and knocked on the door. "Old Man?"

"Come in," replied Eraqus. Ven entered the room and stood at attention in front of the desk where Eraqus was sitting. "I want a cellphone," he told the old man.

"A cellphone?"

"Are you deaf? That's what I said."

"Don't be rude to me when you're asking for something."

"Whatever…" Ven pouted and put his hands behind his head. "Please can I get a cellphone? Or if not, can I get some munny to buy one? Terra got an upgrade, so he's selling his old phone."

"I already spoil you too much, Ventus. Perhaps this time, you should work for what you want."

"You don't spoil me," Ven interjected. "You barely take care of me."

Eraqus ignored him. "It's time that you took on some responsibility. Here is the deal. If you start doing some of the chores, I'll give you an allowance of munny every week. If you save the munny, then you can buy a cellphone of your own. And when you do, I'll pay the cellphone bill. Does that sound reasonable?"

Frustrated, Ven crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Maybe. What do I need to do?"

"First of all, I'd like you to go pick up my mail."

"How do I do that?"

"Go to the post office."

"Where is that?"

"Downtown."

"Downtown?" Ven raised an eyebrow. "I've never been to the downtown by myself."

"Ask either Terra or Aqua to accompany you. But don't let them read my mail."

Ven groaned. He left Master's office, shouting, "AQUA! AQUA!" and slammed the door behind him. Master Eraqus leaned back in his chair. "I do spoil that child," he told himself. Suddenly a book from the shelf behind him fell and hit him on the forehead.

Aqua was still sitting in the dining room, typing something on her laptop. Ven stood behind her, leaned forward, and nestled his head in the crevice between her neck and shoulder. "Stop it Ter—" she began, before she realized who the culprit was. "Oh. Ven. What's up?"

"Can you please kiss Terra? I really want a cell phone."

She blushed. "No way!"

"PLEASE!"

"No Ven. In fact, that's a really rude thing to ask." She shooed him away. "Terra is such a bad influence on you."

"But don't you want to kiss Terra?"

"Who told you that?"

Ven shrugged. "It just kind of seems like it."

"Anyway, the bottom line is that I'm not going to kiss Terra just so you can get a cell phone."

"Then kiss Terra because you really like him, and I'll get the cellphone as a bonus. It's a win-win situation."

"No. Seriously, don't ask me that. I'm not joking."

He rolled his eyes. "What's the problem? All you need to do is kiss him!"

"I'm not selling myself to buy something for you. That's the problem. So shut up, and go away."

With a groan, Ven left her alone. He instead entered Terra's room and sat on the bed. Terra, who laying down and playing Clash Royally on his new cell phone, asked, "What's up?"

"Master Eraqus said that he'd give me an allowance if I do some chores. And the first one he told me to do was pick up his mail," explained Ven. "But I don't want to go to the downtown all alone. Please come with me?"

"Ask Aqua—" Suddenly Terra sat up and yelled at his phone, "Dammit! Why did my partner use skeleton army?"

Whining, Ven said, "I don't want to go with Aqua! I want to go with you!"

"Ven, you're a big kid. You should be able to go by yourself."

"But I'm scared."

"There isn't anything to be afraid of. It isn't that difficult to go to the post office and pick up mail."

"Really?"

Terra nodded. "Yeah. It's right in the center of town, and you just walk in, tell the clerk that you're picking up mail for Master Eraqus at the Palace, and walk out. You're thirteen years old now, so I'm sure you can do that. When I was thirteen, I was running errands for my dad all the time. You've got to learn to be a little more independent and take care of yourself."

"But I don't think I can do it."

Terra ruffled Ven's hair. "I think you can do it. I believe in you. Seriously. And if you believe in yourself, you can accomplish anything."

His pep-talk boosted Ven's confidence. The boy nodded, and with a look of determination, said, "Okay!"

Thus, Ven ventured out of the palace in the mountains all by himself. He found his way into town simply, but navigating around the busy streets was a little overwhelming for him. He took a deep breath, and tried to calm his racing heart. "Where would a post office be?" he asked himself. He wandered around, sightseeing all of the places that Downtown Land of Departure had to offer. He passed by a museum, a park, the D'Vitae potion factory, the senior citizen center, the elementary school, a grocery store… but no post office. And he was getting really nervous. "What would Terra do?" Ven thought aloud to himself. "Well there are a lot of people here. Someone must know, where the post office is, right? So I'll ask for help."

When Aqua finished the work that she was doing on her laptop, she realized that the palace had been really quiet for the last hour. "I guess I should check up on Ven," she said, as she headed to Ven's room. She knocked on his door. "Ven?" she called out. When he didn't answer, she asked, "Are you giving me the silent treatment?" She opened the door and discovered that he wasn't in his room.

Therefore, she went to Terra's room. Ven wasn't there, but Terra was. He had fallen asleep after raging so hard about that cellphone game. She didn't want to disturb him, so she went to the summit to see if Ven was training there. Nope.

Now she was a little concerned. She went to Master Eraqus's office. "Master," she called out, "have you seen Ven?"

Eraqus was sitting at his desk, reading a book. "I thought he went to the post office with you."

Aqua shook her head. "No."

"Then he must have gone with Terra."

"No, Terra's asleep in his room."

Master Eraqus set down his book. "Did he go by himself?" Master Eraqus interlocked his fingers in front of him as he thought aloud, "I guess that's fine. He's old enough to venture on his own for simple tasks like this."

Aqua shook her head. "I have a really bad feeling about this. I'm going to go find him."

Ventus approached a young man who was hanging out in front of the grocery store. He seemed like a typical guy. He wore a white t-shirt, blue jeans, and a backwards baseball cap. His sneakers were plain black-and-white. His hair was dark brown, his eyes were grey and his skin was a peach color. Timidly, Ven asked, "Hi, um, do you know where the post office is?"

The young man smiled. He ruffled Ven's hair. "Yeah, I sure do. What's your name, kid?"

"Ventus. But you can call me Ven for short."

"Ven, huh? Cute name." The guy pointed to himself. "I'm Quincy. Say, you look a little upset Ven. You okay?"

Ven shook his head. "I've been looking for the post office forever!" he exaggerated. "I'm tired and I just want to go home."

Quincy smirked. "Where's home?"

"Up the mountain."

"Up the mountain? In that palace?"

Ven nodded.

Quincy was surprised. "I didn't know anyone lived there."

"Yup. It's me, Master Eraqus, Terra and Aqua."

"Do they know where you are right now?"

Ven shrugged. "Probably."

"Interesting… You know what, I bet you're thirsty. Do you mind if I buy you a drink?"

Ven got excited. "Really? I love chocolate milk!"

"Chocolate milk it is." He grabbed Ven's hand and led him inside the store.

Ven happily drank his bottle of chocolate milk while following Quincy around the town. "The post office is the opposite direction than where I was going," Ven noticed, as they strayed from the busy shopping centers. "But Terra told me it was in the center of town."

"No, Terra might have been confused. It's definitely this way. It's really far down this street."

Ven sighed. "I don't know how Terra or that Old Man expected me to find it on my own. Thanks for taking me."

"No problem."

They kept walking. They ended up in a run-down residential neighborhood. All the houses were boarded up, the grass grew knee-high, and stray dogs dug around in the trash that was littered everywhere. As naïve as Ven was, he noticed that something wasn't right. "Are you lost, Quincy? I don't think the post office is here."

Quincy hit himself on the head. "Darn it! Maybe I am lost." He stopped walking and tapped his finger against his chin. "Hmm… well… I know! A buddy of mine lives nearby. Let's go to his house and ask him for directions."

Ven narrowed his eyes. "If you didn't know the way to the post office, you should have just told me." He turned around to walk away. "I'll try to find it myself."

Quincy seized Ven's hand. "No. Just trust me. I'll figure out the way."

Ven yanked his hand away. "It's fine. Don't worry about it. Thanks for trying to help."

Quincy seized Ven's hand again. "I know what I'm doing, Ven. Come on. Just trust me."

Again, Ven yanked his hand away. "Seriously, I'll find the post office by myself. It's not that big a deal. Thanks for the chocolate milk."

Quincy seized Ven's hand for the final time. "You're coming with me, whether you like it or not, kid!"

"Let me go!" Ven summoned his keyblade in his free hand and slashed at Quincy. Quincy jumped back right in the nick of time. He summoned a dagger in each of his hands. "You want to put up a fight kid? That's fine. It's more fun that way."

Quincy teleported behind Ven. Instinctively, Ven rolled out of the way. Quincy rushed forward. Ven parried his strike. "Thunder!" Ven shouted.

A bolt rained from the sky and struck Quincy. "Reflectaga!" Quincy thrust out his arms and redirected the attack toward Ven. Ven ducked forward, and with a low kick, swept Quincy off of his feet. Ven jumped in the air and thrust his blade downward to finish him off.

But it was a substitution that poofed away. The real Quincy appeared in front of Ven and slashed at him. Ven was quick enough to dodge, but Quincy landed a cut on Ven's cheek. Bleeding, Ven stumbled backwards. Quincy kicked Ven in the gut hard enough to make Ven fall. With dull eyes and a smile that bared his teeth, Quincy said, "You'll be number six."

And Ven froze. He couldn't breathe. His vision went hazy. Quincy raised his blades.

CLANG!

Aqua dropped down in front of Ven and deflected Quincy's attack. Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! She swung her blade against Quincy's blades, pushing him back several feet. "Ven!" she shouted. "Run!"

Ven couldn't. He was in shock.

She dodged an attack from Quincy, reversed, and shouted, "Fire!" as she shot a ball of flames at him.

"Reflectaga!" Quincy yelled. He launched the fireball back at Aqua. She jumped over it, raised her keyblade, and brought it down with a forceful blow.

It was a substitution. The real Quincy appeared behind her, in an attempt to stab her in the back. Aqua front-flipped away, turned, and tossed her keyblade at him. Quincy a blocked it with his daggers. Her weapon returned to her hand, and she rushed him.

Quincy tried to block it by crossing his daggers in front of him, but she broke through his guard and pummeled him to the ground. Aqua kept swinging and swinging her keyblade, battering and battering him, until he was knocked out. Once she was sure that he wouldn't be moving anytime soon, she ran to Ven and hugged him.

"Are you okay?" she asked, cradling him.

He shook his head. He couldn't speak.

"It's okay. I've got you. You're safe now," she told him.


	36. Number Six

Aqua called the police, and they came and arrested Quincy. Paramedics tended to Ven's wound while the police chief shook Aqua's hand. He said, "Thank you so much young lady. We've been looking for this criminal for months now. He's known as Quincy the Candy Guy. He lures in kids by buying stuff for them and then…" The chief paused. Taking off his hat, he looked away and said, "Well, he's gotten seven other victims, five of which didn't survive."

Aqua placed a hand on her chest. With the other hand, she pulled Ven closer to her.

When the two arrived home, Ven went straight to his room to sleep. Aqua explained the situation to Master Eraqus and Terra. Both of them were absolutely horrified.

"I should have just given him the phone!" Terra exclaimed as he pounded his fist against the wall. "Or went with him! What was I thinking?"

"Don't blame yourself Terra," Aqua told him. "Of course you didn't think something like this would happen to him."

But Terra ran his hands through his hair and shouted, "This is all my fault! I should have been there to protect him! What would have happened if you didn't go look for him, Aqua? Ven could have been…"

Master Eraqus stepped in, "Calm down Terra. You're panicking over something that didn't happen."

Terra paced back and forth. "He told me that he was scared to go by himself. Yet I didn't go with him. What kind of person am I?" Terra felt a hand grip his shoulder. It was Master Eraqus. "Terra," said the old man, "you are not at fault. Awful situations happen as a result of all the worst case scenarios coinciding together. The way forward is not to dwell on why it happened, but to be thankful that Ven and Aqua are safe, and that the perpetrator was captured."

Terra nodded his head, but he still felt guilty.

When Ven awoke the next day, he went straight to the training field. Sitting Mizz Piggy down where he could see her, he started by practicing his confirmed combos one-hundred times each.

"Ven?" Aqua called out as she, Terra and Master Eraqus arrived on the summit. She exhaled with relief. "Oh goodness, I was worried when you didn't show up for breakfast and weren't in your room."

"Sorry Aqua," he apologized. "I wanted to do some training before breakfast and I guess I lost track of time." He didn't meet her eyes when he spoke. She stooped down in front of him and touched his hurt cheek. She ventured to ask, "Does it hurt?"

Ven nodded.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"It'll heal soon enough. It's just a scratch."

"No, I mean, do you want to talk about what happened yesterday?"

Ven shrugged. "There's nothing to talk about." Stepping away from her, he took a fighting stance with his keyblade again. "I think I'll skip breakfast today." And he continued to practice his combos.

For the rest of the week, Ven did the same thing. He woke up before the sunrise and, along with Mizz Piggy, trained until well after sunset. He barely ate, slept or took a break.

"He's going to get sick if he keeps doing this," fretted Aqua.

Master Eraqus assured her, "He's processing his emotions, Aqua. Allow him some time to heal."

Terra, still brooding over his actions, tightened his hand into a fist. "Poor kid…"

Very late that night, Terra found Ven laying on the grass at the summit, holding Mizz Piggy and staring upwards at the stars.

"Ven?" Terra said, approaching him.

Ven did not respond.

Terra sat down beside Ven. "I'm sorry."

Ven did not respond.

"I don't know if this will make you feel better, but I'll give my old phone to you. If you still want a cell phone, that is."

Ven did not respond.

Terra laid back in the grass, to look at the stars. He stole a glance at Ven, and noticed that the boy looked vacant, empty. His eyes had dulled. It was as if Ven had reverted to the state that he was in right after he awoke from the coma several months ago.

"What are you thinking about right now, Ven?" Terra asked.

No response.

"Please, Ven, don't suffer alone. I'm here to listen."

No response.

Terra begged, "It's okay to cry. It's okay to scream. It's okay to be mad or angry or furious. Just let it out Ven. Please don't keep it to yourself. Please, tell me what you're thinking."

No response.

Terra kept quiet.

The stars twinkled.

Ven squeezed Mizz Piggy. Several minutes passed by, before Ven softly answered, "Number six."

Terra placed his hand on Ven's hand. "I don't understand."

Ven, his expression bleak, allowed tears to roll down his cheeks. "Number six." Suddenly Ven wept a waterfall of tears. "Terra! There were seven others!" Ven shouted. "And five of them didn't survive! Five other kids! Five kids, just like me! I was lucky! I could have been number six!" He didn't even try to wipe the tears. "He said that I would be number six! And when he said that, my mind went blank, Terra! And if Aqua hadn't come, I would have been number six!"

Ven pounded the grass with his fists and sobbed. "Why? Why did he do that? It doesn't make sense! It doesn't make sense that five other kids aren't alive today, because of that guy! It's not fair! Life isn't fair!" He kept crying. And crying. And crying.

Terra embraced him, and Ven cried until he ran out of tears. At that point, all he could do was rest his head against Terra's chest and sniffle.

Silence.

The grass on the field danced to the silent music of the late summer breeze. The sun was beginning to rise.

"Terra?" Ven said.

"Hmm?"

"I want to be someone who can protect those who can't protect themselves." Ven stood up. "I know what it feels like to be helpless. I don't want anyone to ever feel that way." He held out his hand to summon his keyblade. "So that's what I'm gonna do. I'll become a keyblade master and protect everyone." One last tear escaped from his eyes.

Terra nodded. "I'm sure you will Ven. I'm sure you will."


	37. Get Schooled

Armed with his brand new (Terra's old) cellphone, Ven sat on his bed, Mizz Piggy in his lap, and debated whether or not to text Hayner, Pence and Olette. He had already saved their numbers into the phone. Since it had been two weeks since he'd met them, Ven felt awkward about texting out of the blue. "What should I do, Mizz Piggy?" asked Ven, his eyes closed, his eyebrows creased. "What do I even say?"

Of course, Mizz Piggy couldn't give him an answer.

Ven sighed. He fell backwards onto his bed, arms outstretched, facing the ceiling. "Hi, it's me, Ven, from the arcade that time," he mumbled. Holding the phone above his head, he typed in that message. He hesitated on hitting send. "That sounds dumb…" he told himself. "I can't send—"

The phone slipped out of his hand and landed on his face. His nose tapped the send button. Thus, he sent the message to all three of them in a group text. Prying the phone off of his face, Ven rubbed his nose and frowned. "Fuck!" he exclaimed, having picked up the habit of swearing from Terra and Aqua. "I didn't mean to do that!"

But that fuck was premature, because almost immediately, Hayner texted back, _Finally!_

Olette texted, _Hi Ven! This is Olette._

Pence texted, _Pence here! How have you been?_

Their friendliness nearly brought tears to his eyes. _I'm happy I got a cellphone!_

 _Download the Lime app Ven,_ Hayner demanded via text. _That's what we use to text each other._

Ven downloaded it and spent the rest of the day texting his friends. By dinner time, he was an expert at emojis and short-hand text lingo. And he was semi-addicted to his phone. Ven barely touched his food because he was too busy texting.

"Ven, put your phone away," Master Eraqus told him.

"Shut up Old Man," said Ven.

Eraqus rubbed his temples and shook his head. "I'm at my wits end with this boy."

Terra voiced his opinion, "It's because you don't discipline him enough. I'd never talk back to my father because I knew I'd get hit across the face."

"Don't you dare hit Ven outside of training," Aqua demanded.

Terra rolled his eyes. "Whatever." To Ven he ordered, "Eat your food before it gets cold."

"Fine, fine," Ven acquiesced. He finally put down his phone.

Late at night, however, he was still texting his friends. Hayner sent the message, _Guys! Tomorrow is the last day to do our summer homework! Come over to my house and we'll work on it._

Olette texted, _I'm almost done with mine._

Pence said, _I finished mine last week._

Hayner replied, _I haven't even started! Please let me copy!_

Ven asked, _What's summer homework?_

 _It's a bunch of worksheets and assignments that teachers want you to complete before the next semester starts,_ Olette explained. _But you don't go to school, right?_

Hayner texted, _You should come to our school Ven! It'll be fun!_

 _I'll think about it_ , he replied. Eventually, Ven fell asleep. The next morning, the group chat was quiet. "They're probably doing their homework," he mumbled to himself.

During training, Master was explaining the importance of using different types of combos to unlock command styles. "Aqua, Terra, you've been working on your own command styles, so perhaps you should demonstrate for Ven," Eraqus told his older students. "Ven, is there a style you'd like to see first?"

Ven was looking at his phone.

"Ven, pay attention," Master Eraqus demanded.

"Leave me alone, Old Man," the kid replied as he put away his cell phone.

"What did I do to deserve this disrespect?" Eraqus, forlorn, asked no one in particular.

Terra fussed at the kid, "Stop being disrespectful."

Aqua jumped to Ven's defense, "Stop yelling at him." She approached Ven, stooped down to his level to meet his eyes, and asked, "What's wrong?"

Ven turned away from her and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "You're so nosy Aqua." Yet he admitted, "I'm wondering what it's like to go to school."

"School?" Master repeated. "Ah, that's right, a child Ven's age should be in school, or at least home-schooled."

"School sucks," Aqua stated definitively. She stood up, shook her head and placed her hands on her hips. "You need to keep up a façade of perfection so that your classmates will call you the Queen Bee of the school. There's so much pressure to make good grades and look pretty and be the best at sports and be the student body president, while at the same time excelling at ballet and going to all of your mom's community service events and parties. You'll be so busy that you'll only have time to practice your keyblade skills late at night, but you still have to look well-rested, so you can only practice a little at a time."

Terra raised an eyebrow. "That sounds really specific, Aqua."

She blushed. "Anyway, school is basically prison and it's a waste of time. That's why I dropped out."

"You dropped out?" Master Eraqus exclaimed.

"Yup!" she said proudly. Yet, with a look of disdain, she added, "But recently, my brother coerced me to do online school to get my high school diploma. It takes up so much time."

Terra asked, "Is that why you're always doing something on your laptop?"

She nodded.

"Well that's good," Terra told her. "Finishing high school is important, Aqua."

"You sound like my brother."

Terra chuckled. "Great minds think alike. And I think Ven should go to school." He ruffled Ven's hair. "It's not that bad, Ven. You'll make friends your own age and have tons of fun. Plus, you'll learn interesting things, and you'll have responsibilities, like homework and studying." Terra smiled softly as he reminisced about his high school days. "I loved school, but I graduated early, because I knew that I wanted to study to be a keyblade master. My best memories are of the calm fall afternoons spent playing football with my buddies on the team. I also liked my tenth grade homeroom teacher. She was hot."

"Who set her on fire?" Ven asked.

"No, she was attractive," Terra corrected him. "Why do you immediately think of violence?"

Master Eraqus spoke up, "Well, it's settled then. Ven will go to school. When does school start?"

Ven told him, "Tomorrow."

Looking to Aqua and Terra, Master Eraqus said, "See to it that he is registered and has all the supplies he needs."

Aqua and Terra gave their master the evil eye. The lazy old man snapped his fingers, "Hurry. Time is more precious than gold."

The rest of the day was spent getting Ven registered and prepared for school. Once they filled out the paperwork at the local middle school, Terra took Ven shopping for a school uniform while Aqua purchased school supplies. By that evening, Ven was prepared to be a school boy.

So he texted his friends, _I guess I'm going to your school after all._

Olette sent a cute image of a happy cat throwing balloons.

Hayner said, _Alright! What homeroom?_

 _Class 8-K_ , answered Ven.

Hayner said, _That's ours!_

Olette added, _Can't wait to see you in class Ven!_

Pence said, _It'll be nice to have a new student._ _I can't stand looking at that empty seat anymore._

 _Shut up._ Hayner texted.

The conversation went silent.

Ven didn't know what else to say. So he plugged is phone in to charge for the night, and went to sleep.


	38. Number Two

In his room, Ven stood in front of his mirror, nervously unbuttoning and buttoning his black gakuran jacket, which he wore on top of his white collared shirt. "What if no one likes me, Mizz Piggy?" he asked.

The stuffed animal, which was sitting on his bed, slumped over.

"Yeah, at least I'll have Hayner, Pence and Omelet—Olette. I can't call her omelet. She'll be mad. Girls get angry about everything."

Mizz Piggy was silent.

"Well technically, you're not a girl, Mizz Piggy, because you're a doll, not a person." He buttoned up his school uniform jacket one last time. "I need to get going."

He ate a quick breakfast of toast and eggs, and, alongside Terra, made his way down the mountain for his first day of school. Aqua had picked out a shiny red backpack for him, and adorned it with a kingdom key charm.

It wasn't a long walk. Terra dropped him off by the gates of the school. "I'll pick you up when the day is over."

"Okay," Ven replied. His body was trembling with nerves. Terra petted his head and assured him, "Hey, it'll be fine."

"But what if it's not? What if today goes horribly wrong?"

"Don't worry. Everything will be fine, Ven."

The middle-schooler took a deep breath, and exhaled. "Okay. Thanks Terra." He waved goodbye and entered the school.

However, walking into class 8-K, Ven suddenly felt overwhelmed. There were about twenty or so students already there, chatting away about their summer exploits. Anxiously, Ven stood beside the door, as if ready to make a quick escape.

"Ven!" cried out Hayner as he grabbed Ven in a hug from behind. Following him were Pence and Olette.

"H-hi!" shouted Ven.

"You nervous?" Hayner teased, while wrapping an arm around Ven's shoulders. "Don't worry. I'll show you how school works."

Olette piped in, "You couldn't even finish your summer homework. I don't think you're the best role model."

Pence laughed. Hayner scratched his own chin, and said, "Well, you see, I'm the best at making excuses and getting deadlines extended, so it's not a problem for me."

Olette shook her head. "Don't listen to him Ven. Let's go sit down."

So they did. Hayner, Pence and Olette started talking about something else, but Ven noticed that the classroom buzz died down. Perhaps it was his imagination, but he felt that all eyes were on him. And he began to hear whispers. "He's sitting with them. He's sitting in that seat."

Ven tensed. He tried to make himself smaller.

"Right Ven?" asked Hayner.

He hadn't been paying attention. "Huh? What'd you say?"

Olette argued, "Don't make him pick sides!" and they continued to talk about whatever they were talking about. Soon, the homeroom teacher showed up. Everyone in the class had to stand up and introduce themselves. Then they started their lessons. The rest of the day went pretty smoothly.

Once it was over, the quartet of friends were preparing to leave. "How did you feel about your first day, Ven?" Pence asked.

"Okay," he responded. They walked out of the classroom and down the hall. "It doesn't seem too hard."

Hayner complained, "Wait until they start assigning math homework. Then you'll really hate school."

Ven was a little puzzled. "Why'd you tell me to come to school if school was bad?"

Olette explained, "It isn't that bad. Hayner just likes to complain."

Pence added, "Plus, we can hang out with you more often."

"That's true," Ven agreed. "Honestly, that was the main reason I decided to start school. I wanted to see you guys again."

"Awww!" Olette and Pence cooed, hugging Ven. Hayner, although very much flattered, tried to act cool. He said, "Looks like you made the right choice, kid. We're sticking with you forever." And the four of them laughed.

At this point, they were walking past the front gates of the school. From his peripheral vision, Ven noticed someone eying him. He stopped walking and returned the stare. The someone was a high school boy, dressed in a navy blue blazer and slacks. He carried his bag in one hand and leaned against the railing of the school gates with the other. Covering most of his blonde hair was a black beanie cap.

"He's staring at me," Ven said to his friends as he pointed to the older kid. Olette winced. "Not again," she mumbled.

Pence whispered, "Do you think he's going to do it this semester too?"

Hayner scowled, grabbed Ven's arm and pulled him along. "Ignore that guy. He's just a weirdo."

"Don't say that about Seifer," Olette pleaded. "He misses him more that we do."

Hayner tightened his grip on Ven's arm, "There's no reason to miss him. Vivi went on vacation. And one day he'll come back, right?" His forced a smile. "That's what we agreed to believe, right?"

A sense of dread overwhelmed Ven. "Wh-what's going on?"

But before anyone could answer his question, Seifer marched up to the four of them. "So," began the high-schooler, "you think you can replace Vivi with this kid?"

Hayner, Pence, and Olette froze. They were silent. Ven shook his head and asked, "What are you talking about?"

He didn't expect to be punched in the face. Ven landed on his butt on the ground. Seifer would have gone for another punch, but Hayner and Pence held him back. Olette helped Ven to stand up and blocked him with her body. She shouted, "No one is trying to replace him! We all miss him, so stop acting like this!"

"You guys can't do this!" shouted Seifer. He pointed at Ven. "You're not allowed to replace Vivi with some punk-ass brat! How do you think he'd feel if he knew that you forgot about him?"

Ven mumbled, "What's going on? I don't understand."

Olette shouted, "How could we forget about Vivi? He was our friend! And we miss him! But he wouldn't have wanted us to be sad forever! So you need to move on!"

"How can I?" shouted Seifer. "My little brother is dead! How can I move on?"

Hayner tightened his grip around Seifer. "Vivi isn't dead! He's just on vacation! He's just on vacation!"

Pence shouted, "No he's not! He's dead! He's dead, Hayner! Get it through your thick skull that he's never coming back! Stop saying he's on vacation! We went to his funeral!" Pence stomped his feet. "Just admit that he's dead!"

Ven stammered, "Wh-what's going on?"

Seifer broke free of Pence's and Hayner's grasp. He backed away and knelt down, bursting into tears. "I should have picked him up from school! I shouldn't have let him walk home by himself! B-b-but maybe, maybe if I wait here, then he'll come out of class. Right? It'll be the four of you, walking out, like old times. And I'll walk him home, like I was supposed to that day." The delusional look on Seifer's face was heart-wrenching. "So please! Don't replace him! Don't do that to him!"

Hayner, Pence and Olette were silent. Ven approached the older kid, and embraced him in a hug, saying, "It's okay to cry. It's okay to scream. It's okay to be mad or angry or furious. Just let it out."

"It's all my fault," Seifer sobbed.

"No it's not," Olette said as she joined in the hug. "You know how Vivi was. He wouldn't have blamed you. He would have told you to cheer up. He wouldn't want you to be so sad forever."

Pence added, "For Vivi's sake, please, Seifer, don't be sad forever…" He hugged Seifer too.

Hayner quietly joined in as well. And they sat there at the gate, allowing Seifer to cry for a few more minutes. When Seifer calmed down, he apologized to Ven, "Sorry for punching you, kid. I haven't been the same since my brother was murdered. I miss him so much and it hurts so bad."

Ven squeezed Seifer tighter. "I forgive you." Ven locked eyes with him and said, "Vivi was lucky to have such a loving big brother."

Seifer smiled. He stood up, dusted himself off, apologized to all of them again, and left. They waved goodbye to him. Ven lowered his waving hand and sighed.

"Sorry for dragging you into that," Pence said.

"What's going on?" Ven dared to ask once more.

Hayner said, "Vivi was our friend. We've all been friends since elementary school."

Olette continued, "Every day last semester, his brother would come pick him up and walk him home. But one day, Seifer was running late. So Vivi decided to go home by himself."

Pence concluded, "But he never arrived home. His seat has been empty since then."

"That's terrible…" Ven mumbled.

"It was really hard at first," Pence admitted. "And it still is. But I think Vivi would be happier to know that we won't be sad forever." Pence pulled out his cellphone and showed a picture to Ven. "This was him. We took this during the school cultural festival last semester. We were doing a haunted house."

The picture showed the four friends in costume. Hayner had painted his face grey and his clothes were ripped up like a zombie. Pence drew stitches all over his body and wore a headband that made it look like a bolt was passing through his head. Olette wore an orange-and-white cheerleading outfit and held a chainsaw. Vivi wore a yellow witch's hat that obscured most of his face and blonde hair, and a dark blue, ankle length robe. All of them wore bright-eyed smiles.

"Ven?" someone called out. He looked up to see Terra standing in front of him. "You ready to go home?

Ven nodded. He handed Pence's phone back to him and waved goodbye to his friends. "Bye guys."

"Bye Ven," they said.

While heading home, Ven quietly reflected on the day's events. Terra, a little concerned about Ven's silence, asked, "Did you have a good day?"

Ven nodded. "Yeah."

"Did you make friends?"

"Yeah. Really good ones."

 **Author's Note: I'm sorry for torturing the cinnamon rolls. It gets better after this, I promise.**


	39. Reunited

"Terra! Let's get ice cream," Ven said, while he and Terra walked away from his middle school. "Olette said that that a good place just opened up near the bank on 5th street."

Terra shrugged. "Sure."

Today was a calm, cool autumn afternoon. Ven had been attending school for a few months now, and he seemed to be doing really well. (He was a straight-A-student, much to everyone's surprise.) The two of them approached the ice cream stand. Terra ordered a double scoop of sea-salt flavor, while Ven, of course, got chocolate ice cream. They sat down at one of the outdoor tables nearby.

"It's really good," Ven announced. He made a mess of his face while eating it.

"Don't be such a pig, Ven," Terra chided him. He took a napkin and tried to wipe the chocolate off of Ven's face. Ven leaned back, complaining, "Stop it! You'll make me drop my ice cream!"

"You're still such a brat." Instead, Terra used the napkin to wipe his own face. "I don't know why I even bother."

"I don't know why either. Oh, by the way, my friends invited me to go sing karaoke Friday night, so that's where I'll be. And something really funny happened at school today! So I was standing by the door right before the end of lunch time…"

Terra tuned Ven out, while absent-mindedly observing the people that were passing by behind the boy. There was a mother and her two young children. She bought a single scoop cone for each of them. They ran in circles around her, cheering, "Ice cream! Ice cream!" while she tried to pay. Next were two high school girls, who got an ice cream sundae to share.

Then a beautiful young woman walked up to the ice cream stand. Her skin was an earthy shade of peach, her shoulder-length hair was fallen-leaf orange, and her eyes were as green as the summer grass. She wore a white v-neck shirt that showed off her bust, and a denim miniskirt. On her feet were simple white sneakers. She had naturally pouty lips, and a flat nose, above which, she wore pink-framed glasses. "Hmmmm," she told the guy working the stand. "I'll have the strawberry flavor."

When she received it, she placed the swirled ice cream close to her mouth, opened it slowly, and took a bite. "Cold!" she exclaimed, turning to the silver-haired guy who was standing behind her. His brown skin, silver hair, and red-eyes seemed familiar to Terra, although the diagonal scar between his left eye and right cheek did not. That guy replied, "Of course. It's ice cream." And he laughed. To the cashier, he said, "I'll have plain vanilla." Upon receiving his ice cream, he reached into his black leather jacket with his black-leather-glove-clad hand, and took out the munny to pay for the both of them. They were about to walk away, but Terra met eyes with the guy.

"Jerry?" Terra called out.

"Terra?" Jerome called out.

Ven turned around to see who Terra was talking to. "Jerry?" Ven repeated.

The girl saw Terra and said, "Terra?" Placing a finger to her chin, she asked Jerome, "Is that your old friend that you're always talking about?"

Jerome's cheeks got hot. "I don't _always_ talk about him."

She walked toward Terra, leaned in, and offered her hand to him. "Hi! I'm Cassandra, but you can call me Cassie! Nice to meet you!"

Terra shook her hand, while staring at her cleavage. "Nice to meet you too."

"Is this your little brother?" She ruffled Ven's hair. Ven smacked her hand away. "Don't touch me woman," he stated. "Terra, why does she think she can touch me?"

Jerome pointed to Ven. "Who is this brat?"

"His name is Ventus, but we call him Ven for short. He's a student that Master Eraqus adopted."

Jerome pointed to the middle-school uniform that Ven was wearing. "Isn't he a bit too young to be studying to be a keyblade master?"

"He's actually really good," Terra bragged. "I'm proud of him."

Ven grinned from ear to ear. Jerome said, "That's good. That's good…"

Terra pulled out two seats. "Have a seat. I haven't seen you in so long, Jerry. Let's catch up."

Jerome shook his head. "Nah, we've got to get going. Right Cassie?"

Cassie sat down in between Ven and Terra. "Nope!" She licked her ice cream and asked, "How was Jerome like back then? I want to know everything!"

Ven complained to Jerome, "You need to control her better."

Jerome, perplexed, asked Terra, "What is this kid's problem?"

"I honestly don't know."

"Who is this, Terra?" Ven asked.

"Jerome of Skyview. He was a student of Master Eraqus before you arrived."

Jerome nodded. "I was here for about a year, then I left. I felt like I wasn't growing strong quickly enough."

Ven nodded. "Makes sense. That Old Man doesn't know what he's doing. You probably made the right choice."

Jerome looked to Terra, with a face of utter confusion. "What is wrong with this kid?"

"I seriously don't know," Terra insisted. "He's rude to everyone, even Aqua—and she spoils him the most."

"How's Aqua doing? You think she'd still be angry at me?" asked Jerome.

Terra shook his head. "Aqua can't hold a grudge. She'd probably be thrilled to see you. And so would Master Eraqus."

Jerome smiled. "Really? That'd be nice."

"Stop by tonight. We could have dinner."

Jerome shook his head. "So suddenly? I don't want to intrude."

Cassie spoke up, "Sweetie, the reason you came here was to see them again. Don't back down now."

Jerome's face reddened. "Don't tell him that, Cassie."

"Sweetie?" Terra repeated. "You're her 'Sweetie'?"

Jerome took a large bite of ice cream to avoid speaking. Cassie nodded. Terra nudged Jerome. "How did that happen?"

Jerome took another bite of ice cream. Cassie said, "I don't know why he's so shy about it. Was he always so shy?"

Terra burst into laughter. "No! He acted like a tough guy. He was arrogant and rude, but he also had nice moments."

"Kind of like this little guy here?" She pinched Ven's cheek. He slapped the ice cream out of her hand. She exclaimed, "My ice cream!" Cassie looked to Jerome, with tears in her eyes. "My ice cream! Sweetie!"

Jerome sighed. "I'll buy you another one." He stood up. "See you tonight then, Terra."

The two returned to the ice cream stand. Terra thought aloud, "Damn, where did he get a girl like that?"

Ven rolled his eyes. "I know, right? She's worse than Aqua!"

Jerome and Cassie arrived at the Palace in the mountains for dinner. Terra, Aqua and Master Eraqus welcomed them in with open arms. Ven, who was clinging to the back of Terra's shirt, stuck his tongue out at Cassie.

They were having hotpot for dinner tonight.

"It is nice to see you again, Jerome," said Master Eraqus. "It's been a year since you left, hasn't it?"

Jerome nodded. "Yeah…" He looked away. "A very, very long year."

"How have you been?"

Jerome looked up. Upon seeing Master Eraqus's genuine smile, Jerome, too, smiled. "Well, life has been… interesting."

Cassie tugged at Jerry's ear. "Is that all you're going to say?"

"Okay, okay," he gave in. "After I left here, I returned to my homeworld of Ivalice, and joined in with a rag-tag group of sell-swords."

Cassie piped in. "That's where we met!"

"And," continued Jerome, "We ended up getting involved with the kidnapping of a princess. It's a long story, but there were two opposing powers vying for the throne of Ivalice, and the church, which was supposedly neutral, wasn't. A lot of stuff happened. But I ended up fulfilling my destiny." He pointed to the scar on his face. "I got hurt pretty badly, but in the end, I defeated my father." He paused for a moment, staring at his food in silence. "Since I've been gone, I learned a lot about myself. I've grown stronger. I've become a Holy Keyblade Knight. And… I've also missed you guys. So I came back to say hi. I'm really glad to be welcomed here again."

Aqua said, "Seems like you've been through a lot."

Jerome nodded. "Yeah, and I'm still not done. Ivalice is still in unrest. From now, our goal is to create a peaceful world."

"A brilliant goal," said Eraqus. "I'm proud of how you've grown, Jerome."

Jerome smiled.

After dinner, everyone bid Jerome and Cassie goodbye. "Stop by anytime," Master Eraqus told him.

Ven piped in, "But don't bring that girl. She's annoying."

Terra pulled Ven aside and said, "Ignore Ven."

Aqua waved goodbye. "See you later, Jerry!"

Upon waving their final goodbyes, Cassie and Jerome walked away. "A much happier goodbye this time," said Master, returning inside.

"Stop being rude to guests, Ven," Terra chastised him.

"But Terra, she was so annoying!" asserted Ven.

Aqua stared out at the starry horizon. "Are we all going to go our separate ways one day?" she asked

"Huh?" both Ven and Terra said in unison.

She turned around. "Never mind!" She placed her hands behind her back and strolled past the two, returning inside. "Help me wash the dishes, guys."

"Sure," Terra said as he followed her.

"But that's your job Aqua," complained Ven as he hurried inside.


	40. Filler Up

**_Hair Cut_**

Terra was walking down the hallway, doing nothing of particular interest, and he happened to walk by Ven's room. The door was wide open, so Terra decided to peek inside and say, "What's up Ven?" To his surprise, he saw the kid sitting in a chair, a towel draped over his shoulders, munching and crunching on a giant, two-pound kidkat chocolate bar, while Aqua, with a pair of scissors in one hand and a comb in the other hand, was cutting his hair.

Ven answered, "Aqua gave me chocolate!" His face and hands were coated in it.

Terra raised his eyebrows. "Aqua what are you doing?"

A proud smile spread across her face. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm giving him a haircut."

"Why didn't you just take him to a professional place?" Terra asked, while cringing at Aqua's handiwork.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Middle school kids can be mean, you know? They're going to make fun of him."

Aqua pouted. She circled around Ven, inspecting his haircut from all angles. "I don't think it's bad."

"Ven what do you think?"

The boy was too preoccupied with the chocolate to care. "It's whatever."

"No it's not _whatever,_ " Terra argued. "It's _bad_."

Aqua rolled her eyes. "It's not bad."

"Aqua one side of his hair is shorter than the other."

"Yeah, it's an asymmetrical look. Once I put some gel in his hair and brush it up, it'll be all cool and spikey."

Terra didn't look convinced. "Ven why did you let her ruin your hair like that?"

"Because she gave me chocolate," was his honest reply.

Aqua declared, "Trust me, he'll be the most popular kid in school!"

"Yeah, because everyone will be talking about his bad haircut," Terra stated as he left the room.

Aqua began to second guess herself. Ven nonchalantly devoured his chocolate bar.

The following day, when Ven arrived home from school, he was in a sour mood. Master Eraqus noticed during dinner that evening. "Ventus, stop sulking," the old man complained. "You look stupid."

"You look stupid," Ven retorted.

"Instead of being rude, why don't you tell me what's bothering you?"

"It's none of your business. But if you must know, it's my stupid hair and it's all stupid Aqua's fault."

Terra shot an _I-told-you-so_ glance at Aqua. Aqua frowned.

"When did you get a haircut?" Master Eraqus asked, just now realizing that Ven's hair was styled differently.

"Aqua did it yesterday, and now all the girls in my class won't leave me alone. They kept standing around my desk, or trying to share their lunches, or trying to hold hands with me, or walk home with me. It's annoying."

Aqua's frown turned upside down. Terra was surprised.

"I'm not surprised," said their master. "It is quite an attractive haircut."

Aqua's smug grin caused Terra to stand up and leave the dinner table.

"You're no help, Old Man," Ven complained as he continued to eat his dinner.

 ** _Homework_**

Ven sat at the dinner table with his textbook, calculator, and notebooks scattered in front of him. He glared at a page in the book with deep frustration. Eraqus happened to walk by, so the boy called out to him, "Old Man! Can you help me with something?"

So Eraqus approached Ven and looked over his shoulder. Ven pointed to a physics problem. "Do you know how to calculate the maximum height and total displacement of a projectile shot into the air at an initial velocity of 30 meters per second at a 53-degree angle to the horizon?"

Master Eraqus's eyes tripled in size. He stared at the question and said nothing…

Until Aqua happened to walk by. "Aqua!" the old man called out. "Can you help Ven with something?"

So Aqua approached Ven and looked over his shoulder. Ven pointed to the same physics problem. "Do you know how to calculate the maximum height and total displacement of a projectile shot into the air at an initial velocity of 30 meters per second at a 53-degree angle to the horizon?"

Aqua's eyes tripled in size. She stared at the question and said nothing…

Until Terra happened to walk by. "Terra!" the young lady called out. "Can you help Ven with something?"

So Terra approached Ven and looked over his shoulder. Ven pointed to the same physics problem. "Do you know how to calculate the maximum height and total displacement of a projectile shot into the air at an initial velocity of 30 meters per second at a 53-degree angle to the horizon?"

"Yeah, sure," Terra said. "First, you want to separate the velocity vectors into its x and y components using trigonometry." He took Ven's pencil and sketched a triangle. "So your x component of velocity, or Vx is equal to the velocity times the cosine of 53. Your y component of velocity, or Vy is equal to the velocity time sine of 53. Next, you want to see the forces that could impact the components of your velocity. In this problem, you're ignoring air resistance, so nothing is impacting your Vx. However, gravity is affecting your Vy. For Vy you know that at the highest point, the velocity must equal zero, because the projectile must come to a stop before falling back down. Set the final velocity equal to zero and solve for the time using the equation Vf = Vy – gt, where Vf is your final velolcity, Vy is your initial y component of velocity, g is the gravity constant, 9.8 meters per second squared, and t is time. Solve for that time it takes to get to the maximum height. Multiply that time by your y component of velocity to get maximum height. Multiply the time by two and then multiply by Vx to get the displacement."

Ven nodded, and did so. Aqua and Master Eraqus slipped out of the room as the two boys continued to work on the homework problem.

 ** _Terra's Workout Routine_**

Terra was in the throne room of the palace, doing pushups. Ven saw Terra, and decided to sit on his back. Ven texted his friends as Terra continued doing his pushups.

The next day, Terra was in the throne room, doing pushups. Aqua saw Terra, and decided to sit on his back. Aqua texted her brother as Terra continued doing pushups.

The next day, Terra was in the throne room, doing pushups. Master Eraqus saw Terra, and decided to sit on his back. Master Eraqus fell asleep as Terra continued doing pushups.

 ** _Terra Learns His Lesson_**

Terra saw Aqua in the living room, typing something on her laptop. He snuck up behind her. She was too focused on whatever she was doing to notice. Right as he was about to rest his chin against her clavicle…

…a burst of energy knocked him backwards, slamming him against the wall.

"Oh shit, Terra are you okay?" she asked, startled. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do that."

He was a little surprised, but he nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. What was that?"

"My 360-degree ultimate protection barrier." She chuckled awkwardly. "I've been working on it as a defense mechanism. But I swear it has a mind of its own, because it pops up whenever my body senses danger. Until I'm able to control it, be careful."

He nodded, rubbed the back of his head, and walked away.

 ** _Just a Joke_**

Terra and Aqua were sitting on the sofa, playing on their cellphones when Ven, holding a poster depicting two overlapped circles, approached them. "Aqua, Terra, look!" he said. They looked up at him. He could barely hold back his laughter as he said, "I just made a _VEN_ diagram."

They chuckled.


	41. Filler Up II

**_Cooking Class_**

Terra and Ven were in the kitchen this evening. With his hair tied back into a ponytail, Terra paced back and forth, lecturing Ven on proper cooking technique. "First of all, always wash your hands before handling food. That means eating and cooking it."

Ven nodded. "Yes sir."

"And if you're a messy cook, make sure you wear an apron." He took one from a drawer and tossed it to Ven. Terra took out a larger one and draped it over his body, securing it around his waist with a bow knot. "Furthermore, make sure your cooking area is clean. You should never cook in a dirty kitchen." He gestured to the sparkling clean area around him. "And you should never leave a kitchen dirty after you cook."

Ven nodded. "Yes sir."

"Cooking is an art. And like any art, practice makes perfect. Just like painters must learn color theory, we cooks must learn flavors and spices. As they learn brush strokes, we learn to chop with knives. As they use the finest watercolors and acrylics, we use the finest vegetables and proteins."

Ven nodded. "Yes sir."

"Now, you may take the ingredients out of the fridge."

Ven nodded. He scurried to the fridge and grabbed the items necessary for tonight's dinner: a carton of eggs, some leftover rice from yesterday's dinner, some onions, olive oil, soy sauce, multicolored bell peppers, carrots, mushrooms, salt, pepper and, of course, ketchup.

"First things first. One must always wash fresh veggies thoroughly, or else you could end up eating dirt."

"Ew," Ven said. So together they washed the vegetables. Then Terra retrieved a cutting board and a chef's knife. "Watch as I do," Terra said. He cut the onion in half, peeled off the thick outer rind, and then carefully and slowly diced the onion's flesh into thin, even squares. The vapors of onion juice stung his eyes, causing them to water. So he joked, "It is important to mourn the onion."

"I see," said Ven, as he clasped his hands together and bowed to the onion. Terra laughed. He set the knife down and pointed to the other half of the onion. "Okay Ven, your turn. And remember, when you chop, make kitty paws."

Carefully, Ven repeated Terra's actions, making sure to curl his fingers tightly, into a fist (kitty paw) so that he wouldn't hurt himself. His dicing was chunkier than Terra's but that was fine. Together, they chopped the rest of the veggies.

Once that was done, Terra poured a little bit of oil into a skillet, and placed it onto the stove. "First we heat the oil. Then we add onions." He did so. They sizzled and crackled, releasing their caramelized aroma into the air. "Then veggies." Terra added the rainbow of peppers, carrots and mushrooms. "Next, the rice and seasoning."

Ven grabbed the rice and poured it on top. Using a wooden spatula, Terra poked and prodded the mixture, while sprinkling salt and pepper and soy sauce, until the pieces of rice loosed up and mixed thoroughly. "And the rice is done," Terra announced, setting that skillet aside. "Next, the omelets." He grabbed a bowl and an egg. "There's nothing worse than getting eggshells in an omelet, Ven, so watch and learn the proper egg breaking technique."

He showed Ven his one-handed, no-shell guarantee breaking method. Ven tried the same, and ended up smashing the egg, splattering the yolk all over the counter. Once that was cleaned up, Ven tried again. He was successful this time. After enough eggs were broken, Ven whisked them up, and Terra heated up another olive-oil coated skillet. Ven poured some of the egg batter into the skillet and they watched it firm up under the mild heat of the stove.

"When it's cooked like this," Terra said, "add the rice, roll it up and then plate it." He demonstrated. The end result was a perfectly fluffy, D-shaped omurice. But when Ven tried to make a one, the omelet ripped in half along the edge, spilling out its rice guts all over, as Ven transferred it onto a plate. Terra, who was washing the dishes, said, "Don't worry, we'll give that one to Master Eraqus. Just try again."

His second try was much better, although the shape was more of a "P" because Ven had put too much rice in the top and not enough on the bottom. "We're giving this one to Aqua," Ven said. Finally, the boy made one last omelet for himself. He was very careful, and managed to get an oval-shaped omelet. He beamed with joy.

"And the final part," Terra said, handing Ven the bottle of ketchup, "is customizing the omelets."

Ven wrote in huge letters "VENTUS" on his omelet with the ketchup bottle. For Aqua's, he wrote, "Aqua" and for Master Eraqus', he wrote "Old Man". The boys entered the dining room and served up the food to the hungrily waiting Master Eraqus and Aqua.

"Great job Ven," Aqua complimented when he handed it to her.

"Thanks."

Master Eraqus chuckled at his. "Yes, great job Ven."

"Stop laughing or you won't get one next time Old Man."

All together, the four of them enjoyed dinner.

 ** _Happy Meal_**

Ven and his friends, Hayner, Pence and Olette, were hanging out together this clear, Saturday afternoon. They were in the park, and Hayner and Olette were trying to teach Ven and Pence how to skateboard. The former two were shredding on rails and kick flipping. Ven mastered the art of coasting on the skateboard without falling, but Pence was having a hard time of it.

"I don't think I'm good at this," said Pence, after falling on his butt for the fiftieth time.

Ven helped him up and said, "If Olette can learn to do it, then anyone can."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked.

"I mean that if you can do it, then it can't be that hard."

She stomped her foot and whined, "That's a mean thing to say Ven!" She actually looked like her feelings were hurt. And Ven felt a little guilty. But he didn't want to show it. So Ven rolled his eyes, and crossed his arms in front of his chest, defiantly. "You say mean things all the time too."

"Like what?"

"Um…" Of course Ven couldn't think of an example. Other than Aqua, Olette was the nicest girl he knew. His cheeks started to color pink. "Um… well…" Ven looked to Hayner. "She says mean things all the time, right Hayner?"

Hayner smirked deviously. "Yeah Olette, you're the meanest girl I know."

She glared at them both. Turning to Pence, she asked, "Am I mean Pence?"

Pence, too, smirked deviously. "It depends. A nice girl would buy us food."

Olette frowned.

But she caved in and took the guys to McRonalds. "I'm not spending more than 1000 munny so don't go crazy."

Hayner clapped his hands together. "I don't even want food. I want to talk to the beautiful cashier lady that works here."

"She's like twice your age Hayner," Olette complained.

"Nuh uh. I asked her last time and she's seventeen-and-a-half." He barged into the fast food restaurant. His friends followed. The four of them were greeted with the sweet sound of, "Welcome to McRonalds!" For Ven, that voice sounded familiar.

"Aqua?" Ven called out.

"Ven?" Aqua called out. "What are you doing here?"

Hayner's expression soured as he faced Ven. "You know her?"

"Yeah she's… well I guess she's kind of like… well she lives with me."

Hayner pulled Ven outside, and then pushed him up against the outer wall of the building. "You live with her? Is she your sister or something? How come you didn't tell me you had such a hot older sister?"

"Um… because she's not?"

"Introduce me! Introduce me to her!" He shook Ven by the collar of his t-shirt.

"Fine!" Ven agreed. He led Hayner inside and marched up to the counter. "Aqua!" he shouted. He pointed to Hayner. "This is my friend Hayner."

Olette piped in, "I'm his friend Olette!"

"And I'm Pence."

Ven concluded by saying, "Guys, this is my friend Aqua. She's a student of my Old Man and we live together."

Aqua waved. "Hi Hayner, Olette, Pence." To Ven, she said, "I'm on the clock right now, so I don't really have time to talk, okay?"

Pence stepped up to the counter, "That's fine, because I'd like to place an order."

Once they had ordered and received their food, they all sat down in a booth by a window to eat. Hayner scarfed down his fries as he asked Ven, "Can I come over to your house? Please? Please? Please? I really want to see your sister!"

"She's not my sister though," Ven insisted as he ate a chicken nugget. "If anything she's kind of like my mom."

Pence asked, "But you guys live together? Are you cousins?"

"We aren't related," he told them. "She's studying to be a keyblade master."

"Oh," Pence said, nodding his head, "Just like you and Terrance."

"Terra," Ven corrected. "It's me, Terra, Aqua, and my Old Man."

Pence took a bite of his sandwich and said, "That's cool. And thanks for the food Olette."

"No problem." She drank a chocolate milkshake.

Ven reached out for her milkshake. "Is it good? Let me try."

"Yeah it's really good." She handed it to him in exchange for a few of his chicken nuggets.

As Ven slurped up the rest of Olette's milkshake, Pence chuckled and said, "I guess you don't hate Olette after all."

Ven shook his head. "Of course not. I never said I _hate_ Olette," he emphasized. "She's actually really awesome and I shouldn't have said that she's mean… So I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm sorry." He looked away.

"It's fine Ven." She smiled.


	42. Filler Up III

**_Cool Wings_**

During training, Master Eraqus, Terra and Ven were staring at Aqua. And she knew why. But she did not want to acknowledge it. Instead, she focused on conjuring balls of magical energy and shrinking them into basketball-sized barriers.

They too tried to stop staring and continue their training, but they just couldn't. So it was really awkward for Aqua, feeling their inquisitive stares all afternoon. Finally, she could not bear it anymore.

"It randomly happens sometimes!" she yelled, reaching her arm around her back to point to the bat-like moogle wings that sprouted in between her shoulder blades. She also had a blue pompom puff sticking out from the top of her head. She had woken up like this in the morning. "I don't know why they suddenly appear, but I can't make them go away. Usually they disappear in a few days. It makes me feel self-conscious because people used to make fun of me for it when I was younger. So stop staring!"

Master Eraqus and Terra tried to act like they weren't staring. Ven, however, said, "What? How could anyone make fun of you? You look so cool Aqua!"

She blushed and smiled. "Aw, thanks Ven."

 ** _Swear Words_**

"Why did I use Three Musketeers, like that's a good card?" Ven mumbled to himself as he sat on the floor in the living room, playing Clash Royally on his cellphone. "That is the worst card in the game. What was I thinking? Why do I even have that in my deck?" Suddenly he sat up. "Fuck! Why does this guy have a level ten hog rider?"

Master Eraqus walked by and heard Ven say that. "Ventus!" he called out.

"What Old Man?"

"Mind your language."

"Whatever."

"No it is not whatever. In fact, come here. Come here Ven."

So Ven walked over to him. "What?"

"Give me your cell phone."

"What?"

"Give it."

So Ven handed it over.

"If you want it back, go sweep the throne room."

Ven groaned and stormed away. Eraqus shook his head, and grumbled, "Kids these days." He followed Ven, and found the boy doing the task, albeit haphazardly. "Ven, do it right or you'll have to do it again."

"Fine." Ven did as he was told, and Eraqus watched until Ven swept the entire throne room properly. And Eraqus kept his word and returned Ven's phone. The kid said, "Hey, Old Man?"

"Hm?"

"Sorry."

"Huh?"

Ven shrugged. "You heard me." The kid seemed a bit embarrassed, and did not make eye contact, as if trying to hide the fact that he was apologizing.

Eraqus smiled, and patted Ven's head. "It's fine. Just mind your language."

"Whatever, Old Man." Ven walked away. Eraqus laughed.

 ** _Throwing Hands_**

"Hey, Ven, my brother sent me some more fancy chocolate. Want some?" Aqua said as she walked into Ven's room. There she saw Terra pinning Ven down on the floor, and Ven violently struggling to break out of Terra's grasp. Aqua freaked out. "Terra! What are you doing?"

Terra looked up. "I'm teaching him hand-to-hand combat."

Ven nodded. "Yeah, Hayner and I are going to beat up a couple of guys at school. They keep picking on Pence."

She pulled Terra off of Ven. "No! Stop it! You'll hurt him and he'll freak out!"

"We're just playing, Aqua," Ven told her. "No big deal."

Terra nodded. "Yeah, I'd never hurt Ven for real."

She pouted. "Fine. Just be careful… Wait, what? You can't fight your classmates at school!"

Ven said, "That's why we're going to fight after school in the park."

"No, I mean you shouldn't be fighting anyone in the first place!"

Terra said, "It's fine Aqua. It's a rite of passage for boys his age. And win or lose, I'll take him and his friend out for ramen afterwards."

Ven nodded in excited agreement. Aqua glared at Terra. "You are a terrible influence," she grumbled as she walked away. "If he freaks out, you'll need to deal with it."

But the following evening, Terra returned to the palace carrying Ven on his shoulders. The boy had a huge bruise on his left cheek and a slightly swollen right eye. But he was smiling, cheering, "We won! We won!"

Master Eraqus, dreadfully confused, asked, "Won what? What happened? Did you get in a fight?"

Aqua rushed to Ven and said, "Terra! He got hurt!"

Ven hopped off of Terra's shoulders and said, "Hayner and I got a little banged up, but the other guys got it worse. They'll never pick on Pence again."

Terra high fived Ven and said, "Now let's get you a potion or something."

"Okay." They walked away.


	43. Luck of the Draw

"Old Man, sign this!" Ven yelled, barging into Eraqus's office with a piece of paper. He slapped it on Eraqus's desk. Master Eraqus glanced down at it. "What is it?"

"Can't you read, Old Man?"

"Just explain it to me Ven," replied an exasperated Eraqus. For some reason, he just could not get this boy to respect him.

"It's a permission slip to enter the D'Vitae Potion Factory Promotional Prize Package Raffle," Ven explained. "They're giving away lots of stuff, but the top prize is five life time passes to Disney Town! My friends and I really want those tickets, so we are all entering the raffle. And since I'm a minor, I need my parent or guardian's permission to enter. And I think you're my guardian, right? Otherwise I can get Terra to sign it."

"Yes I am your guardian," Master Eraqus said, quickly skimming the piece of paper. It seemed legitimate. So Eraqus signed it and handed it to Ven.

"Thanks! You're the best!" Ven ran out of the room excitedly. Eraqus smiled. As annoying as Ven was, Eraqus definitely loved the young teen's energy.

The following day, a bright and sunny Saturday, Ven, Hayner, Pence and Olette stood among the crowds of Land of Departure citizens eagerly waiting in the lawn in front of the potion factory for the raffle to start. The raffle was part of a bigger customer appreciation event at the potion factory. There were inflatable bounce houses, food stalls, free t-shirts, free samples, and a live band for all to enjoy. The festivities had begun early that morning, and was now coming to a close early this afternoon with the raffle drawing.

Olette held her raffle ticket to her forehead, eyes closed, and repeated her number over and over again, "9822020, 9822020, 9822020, 9822020, 9822020."

"What are you doing?" Ven asked.

She ignored him and kept mumbling. So Hayner answered, "Her ritual. She thinks that if she does that she'll win what she wants in the raffle."

"It hasn't failed her once," Pence jumped in. "In elementary school, she won that raffle from the grocery store and her family got a free trip to the hot springs."

Hayner dismissed it as, "Coincidence."

"Two years ago, she won that raffle from the convenience store, and got a month's supply of snacks. And just last year, she won a shopping spree from the mall."

"Olette's just lucky."

"1293892, 1293892, 1293892, 1293892, 1293892," Ven mumbled, eyes closed, placing his ticket on his forehead.

"You can't be serious Ven."

"4399871, 4399871, 4399871, 4399871, 4399871, 4399871, 4399871, 4399871," Pence said, repeating the gesture.

"I'm surrounded by idiots," Hayner complained. Yet he too placed his ticket on his forehead, closed his eyes, and repeated his number, "8814002, 8814002, 8814002, 8814002."

The raffle soon began. A young man dressed in a bright red business suit approached the stage where the live band had been playing. His wavy, blonde hair was brushed back from his face neatly. He wore a huge smile, and his blue eyes sparkled. Taking the microphone from the stand, he said, "Hello and—" There was a screeching feedback noise. He dropped it, and took a giant step back. "Whoa!" He glanced down and to his right, where the sound technicians were stationed. "Can we get that fixed please?"

A sound tech gave him a thumbs up, and replied, "Sorry about that Mr. D'Vitae. It should be fine now."

Rio tapped the mic a few times and then blew into it. "Is this thing on?" He tapped it again. "Hello?" he whispered into it. "Hello?" He picked it up. "Testing. One. Two. Three." Rio pounded the palm of his hand against the mic. "I don't think it's on. Is it on?"

The sound tech assured him, "It's on Mr. D'Vitae."

He spoke into the mic, "Can everyone hear me?"

The crowd cheered.

"Even in the back? Are we good?"

The people all the way in the back cheered.

"Alright, I think we're good. Let's hear a round of applause for the hardworking audio equipment managers!"

Another round of applause.

"Alright, alright. Hello Land of Departure! I'm Mogorio D'Vitae, Vice President of the D'Vitae group, and I would like to thank you for coming to our first bi-annual customer appreciation day! By now, I'm sure you know that we not only specialize in potions and other battle items, but also philanthropy. Our business model is unique in that our goal isn't pleasing our shareholders. Our goal is pleasing you guys, the people who work for us, and the customers who buy our products. To show how much we really appreciate you guys, we're having a special raffle, giving away over 1,000,000 munny worth of prizes, including our top prize, five lifetime passes to Disney Town!"

The crowd burst into applause. Hayner, Olette, Ven and Pence's chanting intensified.

"I'm not going to keep you in suspense any longer. I'm going to hand the microphone to my cute, adorable, awesome little sister. Everyone give a round of applause for Aqua D'Vitae!"

"Aqua?" Hayner repeated. He opened his eyes. Sure enough, Aqua walked onto the stage. She was wearing a formfitting sparkling red, strapless floor-length dress with a sweetheart neckline. She wore a pearl necklace, pearl earrings and red gloves that ran from her upper arm down to the tips of her fingers. Her hair was curled into an American 1920's flapper bob, and her makeup was flawless, from her smoky eye to her red matte lipstick.

Hayner's jaw dropped. "Whoa, she's so beautiful." He tapped Ven's shoulder, "Ven isn't that your sister?"

Ven ignored him and kept repeating his ticket number.

Taking the mic, Aqua said, "Rio, I'm almost eighteen. Please stop embarrassing me." The crowd burst into laughter. Aqua sighed. "Alright let's do this."

Two men set up a table in front of her. Two more men carried a huge fishbowl filled with slips of paper and set it down on the table. Aqua said, "We'll start with the lesser prizes. I'm going to call out the numbers, and the numbers will appear on the screens to either side of me." She gestured to the large television screens attached to the stage. "You will have until the end of the day to claim your prizes from the prize tent, which is located by the factory's south entrance, a short walk to my right. Any unclaimed prizes will be forfeited. Now let's begin. Fifteen people will win a D'Vitae Potion Prize Pack." She reached into the bowl. Dead silence from the crowd. "And the first winner of the afternoon is ticket 1939766. Again that is 1939766."

Someone in the back jumped up and down and shouted, "YES! YES!" and ran in the Aqua proceeded to announce a lot more tickets.

Unfortunately, Hayner won a pair of Nike Keys shoes, Pence won a laptop, and Ven won a Y-Phone X.

But Olette's ticket hadn't been called yet. Ven and Pence focused their energy on her ticket.

"9822020, 9822020, 9822020, 9822020, 9822020," the three of them chanted, their eyes tightly shut, each laying a hand on Olette's shoulders, as if to strengthen her luck. Hayner just rolled his eyes.

And Aqua announced the last prize. "Alright everyone, now for the final prize of the day: five lifetime passes to Disney Town!"

The crowd went wild.

"Just a reminder, if you don't win anything today, don't feel bad. Everyone gets one complimentary D'Vitae potion from our prize tent. So stop by after the ceremony." She reached into the fishbowl of tickets. "Alright, so I'm drawing the last one."

Dead silence. Aqua grabbed the ticket. She unrolled it. She looked at the number. She started to speak. At the same time, Olette mumbled her ticket number.

"9"

"9"

"8"

"8"

"2"

"2"

"2"

"2"

"0"

"0"

"2"

"2"

"0"

"1!" Aqua said. "That's ticket number 9822021! The winner of the Disney Town Passes is ticket 9822021! If you have that ticket, please come up to the stage so that I can personally hand to you, your five lifetime Disney Town Passes!"

Olette's face lost all of its color. She dropped to her knees. She was speechless. A loud man standing right beside her shouted, "THAT'S ME!" He looked around to everyone beside him, and shouted, "CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? THAT'S ME!" He ran toward the stage.

"Congratulations," Aqua told him as she presented him with the passes. "On behalf of the D'Vitae family, we would like you to accept this gift."

He took the passes, and he also took Aqua's mic. "Yeah I'm real thankful for this. I know my little girls would appreciate it. You know, when I first heard that you guys were going to build a potion family near my neighborhood, I was so livid that I went to the city hall and raised hell about it. I mean raised absolute hell. I yelled. I fussed. I screamed. Almost got arrested frankly. They told me to go to the board of commissioners. And I did. I called each and every one of them a dirty, self-serving, corrupt crook and said a few more choice words. Almost got arrested that time too. Frankly, I still don't want your stupid potion factory near my home, but, you know, hey, I got some free passes after all, so I guess I can't complain no more. So thanks."

He returned the mic to Aqua, and marched away. Aqua looked very offended. Like, really, really offended. "Okay…?" She took a moment to recollect herself. "Well we appreciate everyone today. Congratulations. I'm handing the mic back to Rio."

Rio hustled onstage and took the mic. He tapped it. "Is it on?"

Aqua said, "Of course it's on. Why would I turn it off?"

"Oh cool. Wait stay on stage for a sec."

She rolled her eyes and remained on stage.

"Let's get another round of applause for my awesome sister, Aqua!"

The crowd cheered for her. Ven, now snapped out of his ticket trance, asked, "Wait is that Aqua?"

Hayner frowned at him.

Aqua said, "Thank you," curtseyed, and left the stage.

Rio continued to speak, "Alright, the raffle is finished, but we still have tons of free food, lots of games and free samples of our items. Also, if you didn't win anything, please pick up a consolation prize at our prize tent! Thank you and have a great day!" He walked off the stage.

Olette picked up her consolation prize in tears. "I was this close," she cried. "I almost won the passes for us!"

"Don't worry about it," Hayner consoled her.

"Yeah, it's just a raffle," Pence said.

Ven chided her, "Crying isn't going to fix it."

Olette sniffled, "I know, but, I really wanted to go to Disney Town with you guys!"

"It's not that serious," her friends insisted.

"Yes it is!" She kept crying. Ven sighed. He gave his Y-Phone X to Pence and said, "Hold this. I'll be right back." He ran off. As he expected, he found Aqua hanging out behind the stage, checking her phone. "Aqua!" Ven called out. She saw him. "Ven! What are you doing here?"

"I entered the raffle."

"Really? I didn't know that."

"I didn't know you worked for the Potion Factory. How many jobs do you have?"

"I don't work for the potion factory. My stupid brother does and he needed my help announcing the tickets. Let me introduce you to him." So she took Ven to Rio, who was a few feet away, getting an ice cream cone from one of the food tents. "Big Bro! I want you to meet one of my friends. His name is Ventus, but we call him Ven for short. He lives with us at the palace."

Rio shook Ven's hand. "Ven? Haha, Aqua talks about you a lot. Nice to meet you. I'm Rio."

"She talks about me?" Ven asked, annoyed. "Ugh, what does she say?"

"That you're a nice kid."

Ven blushed a little. "Oh. I guess that's fine. Nice to meet you."

"Did you enter the raffle? Were you hoping to win something?"

Ven nodded. "I really wanted to win the Disney Town Passes."

Rio groaned. "Really? Aw man, if I had known, I totally would have rigged the raffle in your favor, instead of giving it to that rude guy." Rio huffed. "How dare he accept our gift and then tell us he doesn't like us?"

Aqua rolled her eyes. "I wanted to say some choice words to him."

"I know, right! Anyway, since we've already given them out, there isn't much we can do."

Aqua begged, "Aw come on Rio. There's got to be something you can do."

"Well… I could double check the budget and if there's any money left, maybe I could buy a few day passes to Disney Town."

Ven piped in, "Can I take my friends? I have three best friends."

Rio nodded. "Sure. I'm pretty sure I could find money for at least four day passes to Disney Town. Maybe more. I'll look into it and I'll let you know."

"Thanks!" Ven said.

And that's how Ven acquired five day passes to Disney Town. He showed his friends the following Monday at school. "No way!" Olette cheered. "No way! We're going to Disney Town!"

Ven nodded. "Yup, the four of us and one adult."

She hugged him. "Yay! Yay, thank you Ven!"

"Whatever. Back off," he said, not making any attempt to push her away.


	44. Disney Town

Aqua sat in her room, doing her online classes on her laptop that same Monday afternoon when Rio texted her. _Hey sis there was some more money left over in the budget and I decided to buy three more day passes to Disney Town. Do you have any more friends that might want them?_

Aqua thought of one of her co-workers from McRonalds, Keisha, who had told her yesterday during their Sunday evening shift that she had really hoped to win those lifetime passes so she could take her young son to Disney Town each year for his birthday. Keisha had then said that even if they were day passes, she would have appreciated that too.

Keisha had been Aqua's mentor since the day she had first started working at McRonalds. She was always showing Aqua the ropes, helping Aqua out whenever she needed someone to cover her shift, helping Aqua deal with rude customers, and gossiping with Aqua about the other co-workers that they didn't like.

Keisha was six years older than Aqua, yet she was working at McRonalds fulltime, supporting herself through college, and taking care of her two-year-old son. Keisha had been dating the boy's father. They had been dating since high school and had intended to marry. But then they had a nasty break up (he was cheating on her and decided that he liked the other one better). Therefore, he kicked her out of the house. She then took her son, moved back in with her parents and kept her life moving forward. Aqua admired Keisha's resilience.

So Aqua replied, _Yah._

 _Cool. I'll give you those day passes if you go to Disney Town with me this weekend using the lifetime passes that Dad got us back when we were little._

"Dammit," Aqua swore. She had walked right into that trap. Spending an entire day at Disney Town with Rio was akin to banging her head on the wall for an entire day. But the thought of Keisha's thrilled face upon receiving the free passes made Aqua reply, _Yah sure. But can I bring a friend too?_

 _Sure. I have mom's lifetime pass so your friend can use that._

 _Cool. Thanks._ She set her phone down. "TERRA!" she shouted.

She walked right into his room, without knocking. Terra was wearing nothing but his boxers, sitting on his bed, playing Clash Royally on his cellphone. "Look at him, scared, using fireball on the princess," he chuckled to himself. The young man was so intensely focused on it that he didn't notice Aqua.

"Terra," she said.

"Whoa!" Terra shouted, startled. "When did you get in here?"

"Just a second ago." She sat down beside him on the bed. "What are you playing?"

"Clash Royally."

"Isn't that the one you're always losing at?"

"I'm not _always_ losing." He handed his phone to her. "See my ranking?"

"That's cool." She smiled softly. Terra thought she looked so pretty, her angelic face sparkling. He really wanted to kiss her. He was about to lean closer to her, but then he realized that he was basically naked. Quickly, he grabbed a pillow and placed it over his crotch. "Uh, Aqua, did you want something?"

"Yeah." She returned his phone. "Want to come to Disney Town with me and Rio this weekend?"

"Rio?"

"My older brother."

"Sure."

"Cool." She stood up to leave.

"By the way, Aqua, you need to knock before you come in here. I could have been completely naked."

She realized what he meant. "Oh, my bad! Sorry! Sorry! I am so sorry! I didn't mean to be rude." She hurried out.

Terra laid back on his bed and continued playing his game. "She's so cute."

The weekend arrived soon enough.

Ven and his friends, escorted by Master Eraqus as their chaperone, arrived at Disney Town via Gummy Bus Interworld Transportation System. The entire ride there, the kids chatted about what attractions they were going to see. "We HAVE to play fruit ball," Hayner said. "Me and Olette versus Pence and Ven."

"No way," Olette complained, "I want to be on Ven's team! You get too competitive and start yelling at me!"

Pence argued, "I don't want to be on Hayner's team either!"

"I'll be on Hayner's team then," Ven decided. "And we'll wipe the floor with you two!" He high-fived Hayner.

"Get ready to be yelled at," Pence and Olette said in unison.

Eraqus chuckled. Being around these energetic kids warmed his heart. "Ah, youth."

At the same time, Aqua and Terra arrived in Disney Town courtesy of their Keyblade Gliders. Aqua said, "We'll just wait at the edge of town until Rio shows up with the passes. They don't let you inside the gate unless you show the pass."

"Interesting," Terra said. He took note of Aqua's outfit, a white sundress with a red rose flower-print, a wide-brimmed straw sunhat, and designer flip-flops. He had just worn a grey sleeveless shirt that said, _Sugar Cookie_ , camo cargo shorts, and black slide shoes. "I've never been here before, so thanks for inviting me."

She nodded. "Thanks for coming. I don't think I could spend a day here with Rio. He is insufferable."

"Aw, don't say that about your older brother. From what I've noticed, he really cares about you."

"Yeah, he does, and I appreciate that, but he can be a bit possessive. He treats me like a doll that he can dress up. You should have seen what he made me wear during the Raffle last Saturday. Plus, he's super over-protective."

Terra chuckled. "You're exaggerating, right?"

"Not really."

As if to prove her point, Rio arrived. "Little sis!" He exclaimed as he charged toward her, seized her in a hug and spun her around. Aqua complained, "Rio, you're too old to be doing this. Put me down!" He set her down and said, "Aw, Sis, I'm never too old to shower you with affection." He pulled off her sunhat to ruffle her hair. "Although you are sooo much heavier than you used to be. You could stand to lose a few pounds. And you really should grow your hair long again. You would look so much cuter with long hair. And it doesn't hurt to wear makeup. Not a full face of it, but at least foundation, concealer, lipstick, and eyeliner." He placed her hat on top of her head again, and pulled out his cellphone. "I'll make a note to myself to send some to you."

Aqua glared at him. Then she turned around to glare at Terra, as if saying, _see what I mean?_ That prompted Terra to say something. "Hi, nice to meet you." He offered his hand to Rio.

Rio swatted Terra's hand away and cringed. "Back off you, weirdo." He grabbed Aqua's hand. "Come on, Sis, let's go. There's wierdos here."

Aqua broke out of her brother's grasp. "No, Big Bro, he's not a random guy. He's the friend that I said that I was bringing."

Rio stared at Terra, taking note of Terra's rippling muscles, his chiseled jawline, and his beautiful eyelashes. Rio's jaw dropped. "Wait, no, Aqua, you're not allowed to date until you graduate high school. That's the deal we made, remember?"

Her face reddened to the color of strawberries. "I'm not dating him yet!"

"And where'd you even find a guy like this? The front of a Sports Illustrated Magazine? Does he lift weights for breakfast?"

"Rio shut up and listen! We're not dating yet!"

"I can see right through this type of guy. All he wants is sex."

Aqua felt so embarrassed that she could pass out. Rio marched right up to Terra and, although he was shorter than Terra by three inches or so, looked right into Terra's eyes and said, "No one gets my sister's purity but me!"

Aqua kicked Rio in the side, and he fell over. "Watch what you're saying you idiot!" She then turned to Terra and explained, "He means that he wants to protect me from bad boys. That's all."

Terra, his mouth ajar, said nothing, while mentally acknowledging, _she seriously meant it when she said her brother was insufferable._

Rio stood up and said, "Ow, Aqua!" He dusted himself off. Instead of his usual business suit, he was wearing a simple, off-white t-shirt with the words "Disney Town 4 Life" written on it, pink cotton shorts, and a pair of Nike Keys: Lady Luck, a pink, white and red athletic shoe decorated with the design of a Lady Luck Keyblade. He said, "Seriously Aqua, where'd you meet this guy?"

"He's one of Master Eraqus's students."

"Really? You've never mentioned him before."

Terra winced. "Aqua, you've never mentioned me before?"

Aqua retorted, "Yes I have! I talk about Terra all the time. Terra and Ven."

Rio gasped. "This is Terra? Terra is a dude? But that sounds like a girl name! I thought she was a girl this whole time!"

The sheer amount of shock on Aqua's face was actually kind of funny. She pulled out her phone and started skimming through text conversations with her brother. "Yesterday I texted 'Terra and I made bibimbap for dinner. He's a really good cook.' I used the pronoun he."

"I thought you were texting too fast and autocorrect fixed it."

"Every fucking time I texted about Terra?"

"Yes, every fucking time."

"What the hell is wrong with you Big Bro?" She put her phone away. "I just don't understand you sometimes. But whatever. It's fine. You now see that Terra is a male young man. He's my friend and fellow student. He's not a weirdo. So let's go."

Rio distributed the passes, giving Terra the evil eye as he handed it over. And they entered into Disney Town.

Master Eraqus, meanwhile, watched as Ven and his friends battled it out on the Fruit Ball court. Ven used his keyblade, Hayner opted for a tennis racket, a bat was Olette's weapon of choice, and Pence used an umbrella, which, initially, didn't make much sense to Eraqus. Then he saw Pence block a lot of the enemy fruit from his goal with the rounded open end of it. If Pence was all defense, Olette was all offense, jumping around and bashing giant fruit-shaped balloons into Ven and Hayner's goal so fast that the latter two couldn't keep up. And it wasn't because they weren't fast enough. It was because they kept bumping into each other, attempting to block the same shots, or attempting to hit the same shots. "Ven! Focus!" Hayner yelled.

"You focus!" Ven shot back. "You should defend the goal and I'll return her serves!"

"No! You don't hit hard enough to break through Pence's defense! You defend the goal!"

"Then stop running toward me when I'm hitting the fruit to defend our goal!"

Needless to say, Olette and Pence won the first three matches. "Switch! Switch! Switch!" Hayner declared. "Pence on my team. I want Pence."

So they switched. Pence tried to use his same defensive strategy, but Ven and Olette were both hardcore offensive types. They were overwhelming him, pummeling him with fruit balloons. He simply couldn't keep up. "Hayner, I need you back here," he said.

But Hayner was too focused on scoring into Ven and Olette's wide open goal. It was a close match, but Pence and Hayner ended up winning, 111 to 109. "Way to go Pence!" Hayner said, grabbing his friend in a hug. Pence, panting, his clothes disheveled, said, "No more Fruit Ball!"

Master Eraqus laughed. "Ah, youth."

Rio's first stop was the gift shop. He bought a pair of mouse ears for Aqua and himself, which he insisted that they both wear the entire time. Aqua was annoyed that she had to put away her sunhat in her inventory, in order to wear the childish headband. Rio tossed his cellphone to Terra. "Take a picture of us." Terra did so.

"This will be my phone lock screen picture," Rio said as he retrieved his phone. Then the trio joined the Disney Town Historical Tour Train, which was a whopping 45-minute ride around the town, where a tour guide thrilled passengers with a detailed Disney Town History. "If you look to your left, toward the horizon," said the tour guide, "you can see Disney Castle. There resides our Queen Minnie, and her husband, King Mickey. The two had been dating for a year, and were wed soon after. You see, our fair Queen first met Mickey when he was a sorcerer's apprentice, and was called upon, along with his master Yen Sid, to exorcize demons from the castle."

"They got married. How nice," Rio whispered. He nudged Aqua, who was sitting beside him. "Last time we came here, was almost four years ago, right? And they were just sweethearts." He exhaled a nostalgic breath. "This tour gets better every time."

Aqua, who had seen the tour many times before as a little girl and a young teenager, didn't quite think so. She barely managed to nod and force a smile.

Terra, however, was genuinely interested, since he had never been to Disney Town before. When the tour guide asked, "Any questions?" He asked, "Were the demons exorcized?"

"Why yes, I almost forgot to mention that part. If you stay here until the night, and look into the nighttime sky, you'll see a very special pattern of stardust in our atmosphere, because Master Yen Sid and King Mickey obliterated the demons into astral residue."

"Oh interesting," Terra remarked.

"It's like real life KartKart Racers!" Hayner cheered as he and his friends zoomed along the Rumble Racing track. He, Olette and Pence were using hovering go-karts, but Ven decided to practice his keyblade glider skills. Unfortunately, he wasn't very good at the glider stuff yet. "Whoa!" Ven shouted as he lost his balance, fell off of his skateboard-like-glider, and collided with a random other player, who was probably going upwards of 70 miles per hour (112 kilometers per hour). On the bright side, neither party involved in the accident was seriously hurt, because they were wearing protective equipment: the random player wore a helmet, knee-pads, elbow-pads and wore his seatbelt, and Ven wore his keyblade armor.

Funny story is that, earlier, Ven had fiercely argued with Master Eraqus about wearing the armor. "No!" the boy had shouted. "It'll slow me down! I can't lose to Hayner!"

But Master Eraqus wasn't going to let Ven be a brat about safety. "Ventus, you are not going on that Rumble Racing track without protective equipment. That is the bottom line."

After the collision, Ven was a little shaken up, but very thankful that he had listened to Master Eraqus in the end.

Rio wasn't the type to enjoy fast-moving amusement park rides. He got dizzy at the spinning tea-cups and threw up after the log ride (the one that slowly climbs to the top of a hill, and then drops down really fast to make a splash in the shallow pool of water below, and also takes a picture—Rio bought the picture, though). After all that excitement, the trio sat down to eat and rest at the Disney Town Yummy Yummy Restaurant.

"I'll have the Yum Yum Steak," Terra said to the waiter. "With a side of Yummy Yummy Fries."

Rio said, "I'll have the Yumtastic Yumburger. And she'll have the Yum Salad, with a low calorie Yum Vinegrette."

Aqua shook her head, furiously. "Don't order for me!"

"Aqua, you really should eat a salad."

Terra jumped in, saying, "She can eat whatever she wants."

Rio viciously said, "This isn't your business. Stay out of it."

Aqua argued, "No, what I eat isn't your business! You stay out of it!"

The waiter asked, "So is she getting the Yum Salad or no?"

Silence.

Aqua nodded. "Yeah… But I wanted the salad initially. Not because my brother told me I should get it."

The waiter nodded and walked away.

Master Eraqus and the kids were eating as well. They were eating ice cream at a desert bar. "You can make your own ice cream," Ven told Master Eraqus as he showed the old man a cone carrying his newly concocted flavor. "I call it Chocolate Explosion. It's chocolate ice cream, with chocolate chip cookie dough, with chocolate chunks, with peanut butter and chocolate candy, and finally, chocolate fudge."

Master Eraqus had opted for a simple vanilla. The rest of Ven's friends decided on sea-salt ice cream. "You are going to throw up after eating all that," Eraqus said.

Ven disagreed, and began to devour it, getting ice cream all over his face and hands. Upon seeing their messy friend, Hayner confiscated the cone from Ven, Olette got some napkins and started to wipe his face, and Pence said, "Jeez, Ven, you're such a mess."

With a soft chuckle, Master Eraqus said, "Ah, youth."

There was a fireworks show that night. Aqua, her brother, and Terra stayed to watch it. They sat on a blanket, on a grassy field on top of a hill. The fireworks sparkled in the air, highlighting the demonic stardust glow in the nighttime sky.

It was sort of romantic. Terra scooted closer to her, and pretended to stretch. Softly, he draped an arm around her shoulder. She noticed, and snuggled closer to him. She smiled. He smiled.

"Break it up!" Rio demanded, sitting in-between them. "Aqua, you need to keep your guard up. This guy is doing his best to get in your pants."

"Rio!" she exclaimed, covering her face. She leaned forward, pulling her knees toward her head and tucking her head between them.

Terra admitted, "Listen, Rio, I do have very strong feelings for your sister. But it's not like I see her as an object for the satisfaction of my basest desires. I see her as an awesome girl who is fun to hang out with. I really care about her. Like, really, really care about her. My feelings aren't superficial. And I wouldn't do anything to hurt her. So you don't need to freak out so much."

Rio shook his head, as he wrapped his arm around Aqua. "I'll always freak out about my little sister. That's just how I am."

Aqua spoke up. "I get it Rio. You care about me. But at some point, you're crossing a lot of boundaries. I'm not just your little sister. I'm a person too."

"I know that! It's just that I don't want to lose you again. I can't let anyone steal you from me."

"Terra isn't going to steal me from you, because no matter what, you'll still be my brother. There are separate sections of my heart for the love I have for you, and for Terra." She leaned against her older brother. "So stop smothering me. I'm a big girl now."

He sighed. "Okay Sis. I understand." Yet, to Terra, he declared, "But I still don't trust you."

Terra and Aqua groaned.

Ven snored. He had fallen asleep during the return trip on the Gummy Bus Interworld Transportation System. Eraqus wasn't surprised. The boy had spent so much energy throughout the day. On top of that, it was a slow ride, and the Land of Departure was one of the last stops. Ven leaned on Olette's shoulder, his chest gently rising and falling. She smiled. "He's kind of cute," she said.

Hayner and Pence smirked. Olette realized her mistake. "No, I mean, he's cute like a baby," she said. "Like a two-year old."

But it was too late. Hayner and Pence snickered to themselves, chanting, "Olette and Ven, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G."

"Stop!" she demanded.

"Oh Ven, you're so cute," Hayner mocked her voice.

"Stop!" she begged.

Pence teased, "Did you know that he got these passes because you were so upset about it last Saturday when you didn't win? He was all like, 'Olette's crying. Hold my Y-Phone. I've got to take care of this.'"

"He probably begged his sister, like, 'Come on Sis! I need Disney Town passes! My _beloved_ Olette really wants them!'"

"She's not his sister Hayner," Pence said with a very annoyed tone of voice, as if this had been an ongoing subject of discussion. "Ven has said a hundred times that they aren't related. She's studying the keyblade with his grandpa." He gestured to Master Eraqus.

Eraqus debated whether to correct the kids, because he wasn't Ven's biological grandfather. Olette, eager to change the subject, added, "Yeah they aren't related. Aqua and that other guy are Ven's friends and they're all students. What was his name?"

Pence answered, "I think it was Terrance?"

And the discussion digressed from there. Master Eraqus smiled. "Ah, youth."


	45. Time Skips

Aqua, Terra, Ven and Master Eraqus were watching the evening news. Ven took his usual position on the floor in front of the television, while Terra and Aqua sat on the sofa. Master Eraqus reclined in an armchair.

The archorwoman on the television said, "A serial killer is now on trial for his life. Quincy 'The Candy Guy' Ray-Jones is facing capital punishment if found guilty of the five charges of first-degree murder and three charges of aggravated assault for which he now stands trial. His victims have been children between the ages of nine and thirteen—"

Terra turned off the television. He, Master Eraqus, and Aqua all looked to Ven to see his reaction. Ven seemed confused. "Who turned off the television?" he asked.

"Will you be alright if you watch that news story?" Master Eraqus inquired.

Ven nodded. "It's sad, but I want to know about that sort of stuff."

Master Eraqus exchanged glances with Aqua. Aqua hesitantly said, "Are you sure Ven? You were really upset after it happened."

Ven stared at her, blankly. "What are you talking about Aqua?"

Terra added, "You were really upset about it for a week."

Ven stared at Terra, blankly. "What are you talking about?"

"After the incident," Terra clarified.

"What incident?" The confused expression on Ven's face was disquieting.

Aqua asked, "Are you being serious Ven?"

Ven nodded. He seemed serious. Terra, Aqua, and Master Eraqus exchanged glances. Aqua dropped her voice into a whisper. "Is he joking?"

Master Eraqus suggested, "Perhaps he honestly forgot it. The memory of the incident."

Terra realized, "His memory is pretty faulty. He still can't remember anything from before he arrived here."

Ven complained, "Can you guys stop whispering and turn on the television?"

Aqua whispered, "It was a really traumatic experience for him. Do you think he repressed the memory?"

Master Eraqus added, "That's a logical conclusion. For the time being, let's not try to jog any memories." The two students nodded. Then they turned on the television again.

The news had switched to covering a more pleasant story. The anchorwoman said, "The Doggy Day parade is this weekend! Bring your dog to celebrate at Central Park. There will be free food, giveaways, and lots of animal lovers. Also, there will be the chance to adopt a puppy in need."

"Aww!" Ven cooed. He turned to Aqua, Terra and his Master. "Can I have a puppy?"

"No," they all said.

…..

Ventus sprawled out on the sofa in the living room. He was texting on his phone with one hand, while scarfing down a bar of chocolate with the other. Terra walked by. Upon noticing that Ven had gotten chocolate all over his shirt and the sofa, Terra nagged, "Ven, can't you eat anything without making a mess?"

Ven realized that he was being a slob. "Oops." He sat up. "Sorry Terra. I love chocolate so much that I eat it like a pig. I can barely control myself."

Terra chuckled. "Must be from that time you got addicted to it."

"Yeah I'm definitely addicted to chocolate," Ven joked, laughing.

"No, I mean that at one point, you got magically addicted to chocolate."

Ven stopped laughing. "Seriously?"

Terra nodded. Ven looked into Terra's face, quizzically. Terra returned the look. Finally, Ven shook his head. "When was that?"

"It was three whole days of you acting like a brat and freaking out because we didn't let you have chocolate," Terra explained.

Ven seemed concerned. "Three whole days? I don't remember…" Ven grabbed at his head. "Are you sure, Terra? I don't remember."

Because Ven looked so frustrated, Terra said, "Never mind," and left Ven alone.

…

Today was the day of the school cultural festival. Class 8-K was doing a haunted house.

Hayner was dressed as a gunshot victim. He wore a white shirt, stained red on the chest, and plain denim jeans. Pence was a vampire. He painted his skin ghostly white, wore fake fangs that dripped fake blood, and dressed in a tuxedo adorned with a cape. Olette wore a black leather bodysuit, a yellow-and-blue helmet shaped with cat ears, and carried a giant scythe. Ven wore a rusted metal suit of armor.

They had fun scaring the local citizens.

During their break, Ven and his friends walked around the school and got some food from some of the other classes' stalls. "Yum!" Olette said as she took a bite of her tempura shrimp. "Class 9-D is really good at cooking."

"Let me try some," Ven asked. He opened his mouth wide. She fed him. "It is good," he said with a smile. Olette laughed.

Hayner and Pence exchanged glances. They too, laughed.

As the quartet headed back to their classroom to finish their shift at the haunted house, Hayner mentioned, "It's at times like this that I really miss Vivi. Like, really, really miss him."

Olette nodded. "Me too."

Pence agreed. "Yeah."

The three wore somber smiles. Ven kept silent. Something in his gut told him to resist the urge to ask who they were talking about.

….

Aqua was sitting in the living room, sowing something. Ven walked by. "What are you doing?" he asked.

She said, "An art project." She held it up. "It's supposed to be a doll, but it doesn't look so good."

Ven inspected the make-shift teddy bear that Aqua had crafted. He laughed and critiqued her, "It's ears are too far apart, and the button eyes are too close together. Can't you do anything right, Aqua?"

She laughed as well, and told him, "Cut me some slack. It's the first one I've ever made."

Ven got confused. "But didn't you make Mizz Piggy for me?"

Aqua shook her head. "No. I stole Mizz Piggy."

"Oh. Really? I thought you made her."

Aqua shook her head and insisted, "No, I gave her too you because you couldn't sleep on your own."

Ven pouted. "Oh. Well I thought that you made her for me…" He seemed disappointed.

"No worries, Ven. Either way, Mizz Piggy is yours to keep—a gift from me to you. Okay?"

He nodded. But he still seemed out of sorts.

…..

"I got my high school diploma!" shouted Aqua and she jumped around in her room. At the ripe young age of 18-and-a-half years old, she had finally achieved that hallmark of education. She ran to Terra's room, burst in, and cheered, "My diploma came in the mail today!"

Terra was laying on his bed, one hand in his pants, reading a dirty magazine. He was dreadfully embarrassed, but nonetheless he said, "Um, good job."

"T-thanks," she replied, blushing. She practically flew away from his room.

Next she burst into Ven's room. "Ven! My high school diploma came in the mail today." She was genuinely relieved to see that Ven was just sitting at his desk, doing his homework. "High school diploma?" he repeated. "Can I see it?"

She handed it to him. He inspected it. He ran his hands along the gold-trimmed cardstock and read, "This diploma certifies that Aquamarine D'Vitae has completed her secondary schooling." He stared at the name. "Aquamarine? Is that your full name?"

She nodded. "I've told you that before."

"Have you?" he asked. "I don't remember."

Aqua's eyebrows furrowed. "Oh. Well, now you know…" She touched his forehead. "And don't forget it? Okay?"

He swatted her hand away, said, "Whatever," and handed her diploma back to her. "Congratulations, I guess." He was smiling.

…..

Terra and Ven were fighting on the practice field at the summit. Ven was swinging his blade so fast that it seemed like there were two, perhaps three of him. Terra was blocking each strike, biding his time, until—WHACK! Terra released a furious counter attack. The blow knocked Ven into the dirt a short distance away.

Ven grunted and stayed down. Terra taunted him, "Ha, given up already?"

Aqua cheered him on, "Come on Ven! You almost had him!"

"So you're on his side now?" Terra complained.

"Of course. Ven's my favorite," she teased.

Terra slumped forward, his puppy eyes full of despair. "Seriously?"

She smirked at Terra and giggled. "You're too easy to tease." Terra laughed too. Ven thought that they were both laughing at him. So he sat up and said, "Stop laughing at me." He rubbed the back of his head. "You two are so mean."

Aqua and Terra's laughter was further fueled by Ven's pouting. "Guys!" Ven whined. Terra stopped laughing long enough to say, "No one is laughing at you Ven." He looked over his shoulder toward the setting sun. "It's getting late. Go take a bath and get ready for dinner."

Ven jumped up and resumed fighting position. "I've got enough time for one more round."

"Nope," Terra said, resting his keyblade over his shoulders.

"Fine," Ven acquiesced, pouting. But then he smiled. "Let's take a bath together, Aqua."

Startled, Aqua blushed and shook her head. "No way Ven!"

"What? But we used to take baths together all the time!"

"No we didn't," she told him.

"Yes we did. You always said that if I wanted to take a bath with you, all I had to do was ask."

Terra got a little jealous. "I want to take a bath with Aqua."

She patted Terra on the back. "Easy there, lover boy. I've only taken a bath with Ven once. And that's because he went and got himself caked in mud."

"Oh…" Ven touched his palm to his forehead. "But I could have sworn…" He shook his head. "Well whatever. Let's take a bath together now."

"You're too old for that Ven."

"I'm not too old!" he insisted.

Terra jumped in, saying, "Yeah, we're not too old, Aqua. Let's take a bath together."

"That would be fun!" Ven cheered.

Aqua walked away. "You two can take a bath with each other and I'll go get dinner started."

Ven and Terra sighed.

But the boys ended up taking a bath together.

….

"Eraqus," Master Xehanort said over the phone one evening. "How are your students faring? Especially Ventus."

"Very well, Xehanort," replied Eraqus, who was sitting in his office, smiling at a photo of him and his students that he kept on his desk. "Ventus has recovered marvelously—aside for the fact that he still suffers from memory loss, and is vehemently disrespectful."

"Good, good. I knew I put Ventus in good hands. Also, may I ask when you plan to test your older students for the Mark of Mastery?"

Eraqus tapped his chin. "They are reaching the limits of what I can teach them. Perhaps within the next year I shall."

"Excellent. Please, do invite me to spectate. It would be an honor."

"Of course, my friend."

…..

"Aqua, Terra," Master Eraqus said to his two older students one day during dinner, "I think you two will be ready to take the Mark of Mastery Exam this fall."

"Really?" Terra exclaimed.

"Whoa!" Aqua shouted.

"What's the Mark of Mastery Exam?" asked Ven.

Eraqus explained, "It is an exam that tests a student's mastery of the keyblade. Upon earning the Mark, one can be called Master."

"It's what we've been training so hard for, Ven," Aqua added.

"It's our dream," Terra concluded.

Master Eraqus nodded. "We will be increasing the amount of training to prepare."

Terra and Aqua nodded. Ven asked, "Can I take it too?"

"Not yet, Ven, but one day soon."

"Why not?"

"You still have much to learn. It is not only a test of skill, but of heart and mind. You must be mentally and physically ready for the test."

Ven rolled his eyes. "Whatever…"

…..

One Saturday afternoon, Terra fought Aqua, while Ven and Master Eraqus watched. The two moved like they were dancing. They were so in sync, dodging, parrying each other's attacks, and predicting each other's movements. They slammed their blades against each other, struggling for a brief moment, before jumping back.

"Looks like you two have fought each other so much that you can anticipate what the other will do," commented the Master. "That will be enough for today. Tomorrow, each of you will fight me, and we shall discuss strengths and weaknesses."

They nodded. Master Eraqus walked away.

"Good job Aqua," said Terra.

"You too," she replied.

He placed his hands on his hips and looked up at the darkening evening sky. "I can't believe we'll actually be taking the mark of mastery exam soon. I'm so excited."

She nodded. "It's sort of nerve-wracking. What if we don't earn it?"

"We'll definitely earn it. We've learned so much since we first arrived here. Can you believe that it was about four years ago that we became Master's students?"

"It was so long ago, but it also feels just like yesterday."

Ven piped in, asking, "What do you mean?"

Aqua and Terra looked at him. "What do _you_ mean?" Terra asked.

"We've always been here with Old Man Eraqus, right?"

Aqua and Terra exchanged glances. Ven, his blue eyes shining, seemed incredibly confused. So Terra said, "Well, it feels that way, but no. I grew up in Traverse Town. I left home to study under Master Eraqus when I was seventeen. And after I earn the Mark, I'm gonna go back home."

Ven's eyes widened. "What?"

Aqua nodded. "Same here. After I earn the Mark, I'll eventually leave."

Ven shook his head. "But… But…" He couldn't find the words to express what he was feeling. "But we've _always_ been here with Old Man Eraqus, _right_?"

The two older students wore pained expressions on their faces. Terra scratched the back of his head, while Aqua bit her bottom lip. Ven insisted, "Aqua, Terra, we've… we've always… we've _always_ been here… together… the three of us…" He sat down, crossing his legs, and leaned his head forward into the palms of his hands. "Right?"

Aqua and Terra knelt down beside him. Terra said, "Ven, you have memory problems."

"Don't tell him that," Aqua whispered.

"No, Aqua, I think it's important that he knows. Ven, you tend to forget unfavorable things and create false memories instead. So if you think that we've _always_ been here, then that's why. You haven't _always_ been here. You arrived three years ago. And we don't really know why. We only know that you lost your memory, fell into a coma, and haven't remembered anything from before you arrived here."

A blank expression seized the boy's face. He kept silent for about a minute.

"Ven?" Aqua called out.

He snapped out of it. "Huh?" He shook his head. "Sorry, what?"

Aqua, concerned, looked to Terra. Terra shook his head. "Never mind Ven. Never mind."


	46. Filler Up Final

**_Home Alone_**

Master Eraqus walked around the palace one day.

It was quiet.

Really quiet.

"Terra? Ventus? Aqua?" the old man called out as he knocked on their bedroom doors.

They were nowhere to be found. He sighed. He needed someone to sweep the foyer. Unfortunately, Eraqus ended up doing that task by himself. He ended up cooking his own dinner and washing the dishes, chores that he had not done in so long that he had forgotten how much he hated doing them.

Later that evening, Eraqus noticed from the living room window that a sleek gummy ship parked in the grass outside. He watched as Aqua hopped out and waved goodbye. The ship flew away. She entered the palace. She was wearing a form-fitting halter-top white dress, a full face of make-up, silver bracelets on each arm, large diamond earrings and her blue hair was styled in a beach wave. She groaned as she walked past the living room.

Eraqus asked, "Hello Aqua. Where have you been?"

"Oh, hi Master." She ruffled her hair, to shake out the waves. "Didn't I tell you? Rio invited me as his guest to attend his best friend's wedding." She took off her earrings. "I told him that he needs to get a girlfriend, because he's too old to be taking his sister." She kicked off her shoes. "But then he said that he's not really the romantic type." She shrugged. "Which makes sense. He has a million friends, but no girlfriends. And no boyfriends either. So he's not gay. So maybe he's just okay not dating anyone? I don't know. Master how do you feel about not being in a romantic relationship in your stage of life?"

Master didn't expect her to tell him all that information. And he didn't really have an answer to her question. "Well I'm a little different, because the only woman I've ever loved left me. I didn't want anyone else."

"That's sad," Aqua said, her expression saddening. "But it's also weird to think that, in an alternate universe, you could have married my mother. I could have been your daughter." She touched her hair. "Would I have been a blonde or a brunette?"

The old man smiled. "An interesting thought, Aqua. I'd say blonde."

She laughed. "Yeah. Well, I'm heading to my room."

"Wait, Aqua, do you know where Ven and Terra are?"

Aqua glared at him. "You don't know where Ven is?"

"Just answer the question Aqua."

"Ven is on a school trip this week, remember? They went to Altissia for the Moogle Chocobo Carnival. Rio and I are going tomorrow."

"Oh, that was this week?" He remembered signing the permission slip and paying for the trip. "Ven didn't remind me. That boy is so troublesome. And Terra?"

"He went home to celebrate his parent's anniversary. He'll be gone all week."

"Oh that's nice."

Aqua shook her head. "You really should pay more attention to our schedules Master." And she walked away.

Eraqus sighed. He'd be doing his own chores for the rest of the week.

 ** _Terra, the Ultimate Mentor_**

One particular Friday evening, Aqua went to work and Ven went to the movies with Hayner, Pence and Olette. During times like this, Terra usually spent his free time hanging out with local young adults his age.

This evening, though, he met with Seifer, Rai and Fuu, three high-school seniors that he had taken under his wing as mentees. He had happened to meet them because of his interactions with Ven's friends.

They had a favorite alleyway, behind the Jake and Booster's downtown, that they had converted into a hangout spot. They used old boxes for chairs, and hung a metal frame to hold curtains. Terra arrived, saying, "Hi guys."

"Sup Terra?" Seifer said.

"Hi," replied Fuu.

"It's always good to see you Terra, y'know?" said Rai.

"What's up with you guys?" he asked, popping a squat on an old box.

Seifer announced, "Fuu got accepted to Land of Departure University for this fall, to study Ancient and Modern Languages."

"Yup," she confirmed.

"Congrats," Terra told her.

"Thanks."

"What about you Rai, Seifer?"

Rai sighed. "I haven't heard back from my top choice, Radiant Garden School of Art and Design. It's making me worried, y'know?"

"Hey, don't worry Rai. You'll hear good news soon. I'm sure. Keep your head up."

"Thanks Terra."

"No problem. Seifer? How's your college application process going?"

"I'm not going to college."

"Why not?"

"I'm gonna join the police force." He pounded a fist into the palm of his hand. "I'm going to make The Land of Departure a safer place, in the honor of my late little brother."

Seifer had told Terra the story of Vivi, and was very much saddened by it, especially since Ven could have suffered the same fate. "That's a great idea. You'd make a great cop."

"You've got to show me your workout routine, Terra." Seifer flexed his arms. "I want to get like you."

Terra flexed his own arms. "Sure thing. I'm free tomorrow afternoon. We can jog around the perimeter of the city, then we can do three-hundred sit-ups, push-ups and squats. Once we're warmed up, then we'll hit the gym for the real work out."

Seifer's jaw dropped. Rai said, "That's insane, y'know?" Fuu said, "Ridiculous."

"I don't do that every day," Terra assured them. "Maybe once or twice a week."

Seifer shook his head. "Never mind. I think I'll make my own workout schedule."

"I'll help," Rai said.

"Same," Fuu piped in. Terra raised his eyebrows, "What's wrong with my routine? If it's too intense, we could start off with one-hundred sit-ups, push-ups and squats."

They all gave him the evil eye. Terra got the message. "Okay. Fifty of each, and then a two-mile jog. And afterwards, we can get ice-cream."

Seifer rubbed his chin. "Sounds do-able."

"Reasonable," Fuu said.

Rai clapped his hands. "Then it's a plan, y'know!"

 **Physical Memories**

Ven and Master Eraqus were battling this evening. Terra and Aqua had other plans (the two of them went to a music festival and had been there all day).

The sun set upon the horizon, casting an orange glow along the rolling hills surrounding the palace. "Your stance is too open, Ven," Eraqus advised, as he knocked Ven's blade out of his hand. "You are quick, but you cannot dodge all of your enemy's attack. Sometimes blocking and countering is better."

Ven nodded, and summoned his blade back to his hand. "One more time, Old Man."

Eraqus looked at the sunset. "No, it's getting late." He fanned himself. "We've been at this all day and I'm sweating like a pig."

"Same." Ven pulled off his shirt, and used it to wipe his face. It had been a hot, humid day, and would be a hot, humid evening, according to the weather forecast.

"Shall we return?" Eraqus said, walking ahead of Ven, down the hill.

Ven did not answer. Instead, he looked at all the scars along his chest and abdomen.

"Ventus? Are you coming?"

"Huh?" He put on his shirt again. "Yeah." He followed his master. He was quiet for a moment. Then he asked, "Hey, Old Man, why don't you cover up your scars?"

Eraqus shrugged. "There is not much I can do about scars on my face."

Ven placed a hand on his chest. "Do you ever wonder why scars don't disappear?"

Eraqus nodded. "Yes. I did. But then I got to thinking that maybe it's good that they don't disappear. They serve as reminders. Every time I see the scars, I remember how I got them. It's a story on the skin."

"But what if you forget how you got them?"

"Then I guess the scars would serve as a reminder that even the worst of pain can heal, and be forgotten. One can move on in his life even after the worst of the worst happens. Even after experiencing something so painful that it permanently damages him." Eraqus smiled as he touched the rough skin on his face, where his friend had wounded him. "It reminds the bearer that things will always get better. Doesn't matter what caused the wound. It's healed now."

Ven, in awe, nodded. "That's actually some good advice Old Man." The kid beamed in joy. "I guess you don't always spout nonsense all the time."

Eraqus grabbed Ven around the neck and pulled the boy close. "I believe spouting nonsense is your job, Ven."

"Get off me," Ven said, playfully pushing the Old Man aside.

They laughed.

 ** _Third Wheel_**

Terra and Aqua were sitting in the living room one evening, watching television together. Terra laid down across the sofa, and Aqua laid down on top of him, her head resting on his chest. Terra had one arm wrapped around her waist, and one arm behind his head.

Master Eraqus walked by, and noticed the bodily contact between the two, and wondered aloud, "Are they a couple or what? Is it my place to ask? I don't want to seem creepy."

Then the Master noticed as Ven walked by, jumped on top of Aqua, and asked, "What are you guys watching?"

"Ven! Get off! You're heavy!" Aqua complained. Terra fussed, "Dammit Ven, you're always doing this! Can't you read the mood?"

"What mood?" asked Ven, refusing to move. Eraqus wondered if the teen was feigning innocence, or was simply that dense to the situation.

"Yeah, what mood, Terra?" Aqua asked, raising an eyebrow. She was probably teasing him.

"Uh, you know," the young man said, trying to avoid the question. "Ven stop jumping on people. You aren't a little kid anymore."

Ven frowned. "I don't get it. Sometimes you call me a kid, sometimes you say I'm not a kid."

"When do I do that?"

"This afternoon! I asked you what Magic Grass is and you said I was too young for to know that."

"Well it's weed! Pot! Reefer! Mary J! Cannabis. The green stuff! Marijuana!" Terra yelled. "You roll it up in a joint and smoke it! That's what it is! Are you happy now Ven? Why did you even want to know that?"

Ven asked, "Pence was talking about trying some Magic Grass but I didn't know what it was, and I was too embarrassed to ask, so I told him to go ahead. So he wants me to try it with him tomorrow."

"WHAT?!" both Aqua and Terra exclaimed.

Master Eraqus shook his head, said, "This kid is such a handful," and walked away.

 **Author's Note: Hi everyone! Thank you SO MUCH for reading 46 chapters of this fanfiction! I really appreciate it!**

 **SORRY for all the filler chapters. Once I started writing them, I couldn't stop. (I had a couple more, but I decided not to post them.)**

 **After this, I will attempt to Rewrite the entire Birth By Sleep Storyline to my liking. This Fanfiction story is FAR from over.**

 **Again, thanks for reading!**


	47. Moving the Plot Along

**Author's Note: After a short hiatus, I'm back. I'll be posting chapters weekly.**

 **Also, a reminder - This is a work of fan fiction. I do not own any of these characters. The Kingdom Hearts franchise belongs to Square Enix and Disney. **

**None of this is cannon to the actual Kingdom Hearts Franchise. I'm writing this for fun and I hope you all have fun reading it!**

... ... ...

"The time is coming soon, Vanitas," said Master Xehanort to the black-haired boy leaning against the wall beside him. The two were in his study. He sat at the desk, flipping through a leather-bound journal. "A plan concocted carefully over the course of several years. Soon, it shall come to fruition."

Vanitas chortled snidely. "You really think so, Master?" The boy shook his head, in disappointment. "You haven't asked Her for Her blessing. How do you expect your plan to work?"

Somehow during the course of his three short years of life, Vanitas had come to the conclusion that the universe was ruled by an omnipotent, unnamed goddess that he simply addressed as "Her". Perhaps Vanitas had gone crazy from the years of smiting and birthing and smiting and birthing unversed. Or perhaps Vanitas needed to believe in a goddess to prevent himself from going insane.

Whatever the reason, the boy's endless banter on the subject was annoying. But soon, Master Xehanort would be freed of this brat's semi-religious ranting. Soon, he would possess the chi-blade. Soon, he would recreate the Keyblade War! Soon, he would unlock Kingdom Hearts! Soon, he would plunge the world into darkness! Soon, he would achieve the ultimate rebirth!

"Don't count your eggs before they hatch," warned Vanitas. "All of your careful planning could fall apart in an instant. It all depends on Her will, Master. Just as you put your pen to paper, She ordains the ultimate fate of our lives." Vanitas smiled. He lifted his hands into the air. "And because I am Her servant, She shall reward me mightily!"

"Foolish boy," Master Xehanort insulted. "You are nothing but a tool for the sole purpose of achieving my goals. And you shall do as I say. Do you understand me?"

Vanitas bowed. "Of course, Master."

"Be prepared, Vanitas. Tomorrow is the day." The old man smiled.

… … …

Fifteen-year-old Ventus walked down the street with his friends after school. They were all laughing, and chatting, like typical high school students, this Friday afternoon. "Join the student council with me!" Olette pleaded. "Come on guys! It'll be fun!"

"I'm no teacher's pet," Hayner declared.

Pence shook his head. "Sorry Olette, I'm already in the photography club."

She turned to Ven. "PLEEEEEASE VEN?" She batted her eyelashes and leaned in close to him. He turned his face away. "Back off, Omelet."

"Don't call me that!"

"Whatever."

She clasped her hands in front of her, bowed her head and said, "Come on Ven! You aren't in any clubs and everyone likes you, so you should join the student council with me!"

"If I do, will you shut up?"

She pouted.

He rolled his eyes. "Fine. I'll join. But only to make you shut up."

"Ugh, I can't stand you sometimes," she told him.

"Then why do you want me to join the student council with you?"

Hayner put his hands behind his head and complained, "Why don't you two just date already?"

Olette and Ven blushed. In order to avoid the question, Ven raced ahead of them. "I'm gonna go home, guys. Tomorrow is the big day for Terra and Aqua. See you Monday!" He waved bye.

Hayner and Pence returned the gesture as Olette shouted, "Wait, are you seriously joining the student council?!"

"Maybe!" he called out. They watched him leave. Hayner turned to Olette and told her, "Just tell him that you like him."

"S-sh-shut up!" she yelled.

Running up the stairs, Ven burst into the palace and shouted, "I'm home!" He walked past the living room, where 19-year-old Aqua was sitting around, crafting something. "What are you doing, Aqua?" he asked.

"It's a secret," she replied.

"Looks like an art project," he commented, while sitting beside her. "Shouldn't you be practicing instead of making art?"

"I've been training all day. I needed a break. Besides, I think I'm ready for the exam."

Ven shrugged. "You're probably right. No amount of last-minute training is gonna help you."

She smirked. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"You can do whatever you want," he said as he stood up, smiling. Then he went up to the mountain summit. There, he found Terra, now a young man of twenty-one years old, doing some last-minute training of his own.

"Grah! Hyuh! Ha!" Terra grunted as he swung around his keyblade.

"TERRA!" Ven shouted, summoning his own keyblade. He lunged toward Terra. Terra parried his strike, and knocked him back a few feet. "Haha!" Ven laughed.

"Don't get your uniform dirty," Terra ordered as he rested his keyblade over his shoulder. "If you want to train with me, go change your clothes."

Ven mimicked Terra's stance and mocked his voice, "Ven, don't get your uniform dirty. Ven, don't eat chocolate before dinner. Ven, brush your hair before you go to school."

Terra chuckled. "I nag you more than Aqua does, huh?" Terra assumed a fighting stance. "I guess you'll be going to school with a ripped uniform on Monday."

And the two battled.

"Please sow it up, Aqua," asked Ven later, as he handed his torn uniform blazer to her. A large gash ran along the back, nearly splitting it in two. Terra stood behind Ven awkwardly scratching the back of his own head. Aqua asked, "Terra, why'd you fight him while he was in uniform, _again_?"

"He didn't mean to rip it, Aqua! Honest!" pleaded the younger boy.

"Fine, I'll sow it up," she agreed begrudgingly, "for the thirteenth time. Meanwhile, you go take a bath."

"Thanks Aqua!" Ven ran off.

Terra shouted out, "You're the best!" and ran off as well.

After dinner that evening, Ven, clad in his pajamas, laid on his bed and cuddled his favorite stuffed animal. He whispered, "They'll officially be keyblade _masters_ tomorrow Mizz Piggy… And then they'll leave me…"

He stared at his ceiling. His bedsheets felt soft against his skin. The starlight illuminated his room from his window. It was so quiet that Ven could hear the chirp of the crickets outside.

"I know I should be happy for them," he told his doll, "but I really don't want this life that we have together to end. We're like family, Mizz Piggy. I'll be so lonely without them…" Ven closed his eyes. "But I can't tell them that. So I'll just keep pretending that I'm okay and that I'm happy for them. That's what a good friend does, right?" He nestled his chin against Mizz Piggy's head. "And no matter what, I'll have you, right?"

The doll made a silent agreement as Ven drifted off to sleep.

 _Dark._

 _The feeling of his body swaying. Yet, he couldn't move. His arms were limp. His legs were limp. His eyes were semi-shut. He couldn't see. His mind kept scanning and rescanning to check if there were even a single muscle he could move. Fingers? No. Toes? No. Blink? Can I at least blink? No._

 _Shoulders? Knees? Maybe I can scream? No._

 _I can't even breathe._

 _Is this death? Am I dead?_

 _He felt himself drop. Although his body landed on something solid, his mind fell further and further into the abyss. Now he could see. He saw himself, wrapped up in those blankets, being abandoned by that man in the dark robe._

 _Am I dying?_

 _He fell farther._

 _Farther away from his body._

 _Farther._

 _Perhaps he would have fallen into the infinite darkness, if by chance he hadn't landed, feet first, gently, on a glowing, white, circular platform, with jagged edges. It was barely big enough for his two feet to stand. And it was rapidly crumbling. Within a few moments, there would be nothing left of it._

 _Help me._

 ** _Hello?_**

 _Hello._

 ** _Are you okay?_**

 _I don't think so._

 ** _What's wrong?_**

 _It's broken._

 ** _What's broken?_**

 _I am. I'm completely broken._

 ** _What do you mean?_**

 _My heart. It's shattered. Shattered so bad that I can't heal this time. And now, the little I have left is slipping away._

 ** _Are you who I think you are?_**

 _I don't know._

 ** _Maybe I can help._**

 _How?_

 ** _You can take a piece of me._**

 _What do you mean?_

 ** _You should join your heart with mine._**

 _Huh?_

 ** _I'll heal you. And one day, I'll find you. And I'll make everything better, okay?_**

 _Okay._

 _A spark of light. The platform began to expand, growing in diameter, until it tripled in size. Yet, the edges were still jagged, and the platform was still colorless and white._

 ** _Our hearts have touched. That's the best I can do. I'm sorry. But one day, I'll find you, and together, we'll be strong enough to win back the parts that you have lost. I promise._**

 _Okay._

 _His mind checked again. Can I move?_

 _Ven sat up._

 _Can I speak?_

 _"_ _Huh?" Ven said._

 _The man in the robe turned around, slowly. Ven couldn't make out the face, because the shining yellow eyes blinded him._

Ven awoke with a start. Gasping for air, he sat up, and touched his face, before leaning back and exhaling. "I'm okay. I'm okay," he mumbled. Mizz Piggy, laying down beside him, smiled at him with embroidered black doll eyes. "I haven't had that dream in a long time, Mizz Piggy. And for some reason, it felt ominous." Sweat trickled down his forehead. Ven tossed his bedsheets off of him, and knelt on his bed to open the window beside it.

That's when he saw the meteor shower. "Mizz Piggy! Look!"

Dolls can't look.

"Wow!" The stars fell like teardrops from heaven. "Maybe the sky had a bad dream too." He laid his head against the windowsill. "I wonder how it looks up at the summit. I might as well check, right? I'm probably not falling asleep again anytime soon." So he jumped up, grabbed Mizz Piggy, and hurried up to the summit to see the meteor shower.

Lying on his back in the grass, he squeezed his doll tightly to his chest. "It's really beautiful up there." He closed his eyes, "So why do I feel so terrified right now?"

The few moments of silence that followed were broken by the sound of a familiar voice, "Ven?"

Ven opened his eyes to see her leaning over him. "Aqua!" He was a little startled. "Why are you here?"

"To see the meteor shower," she told him. She sat down beside him. "Don't fall asleep here. You'll catch a cold."

"Stop bothering me," he told her, sitting up. Yet he leaned his head against her shoulder and asked, "Aqua, why do the stars fall?"

Her eyes sparkled. "Actually—"

Someone interrupted her, "The stars don't fall. It's the lost hopes and dreams of people's hearts that fly across the sky on nights like these." It was Terra who had said that. He walked closer to them. "It's hard to believe that something so sad could be so beautiful."

"Thanks for interrupting me," Aqua piped in, sarcastically. "And I don't think it's a sad thing. Sometimes old dreams need to be cast aside so new ones can form. It's sort of like rebirth."

"I don't get it, Terra," Ven said. "How does someone lose a dream?"

"It's a normal part of life," Terra explained. "You'll understand one day, Ven."

"I wanna understand now."

"You're too young to understand now."

"Quit treating me like a kid!"

"You are a kid!" Terra sternly said. Aqua couldn't stifle her giggles. Terra asked, "What's so funny?"

She continued to laugh as she answered, "I remember having this same conversation with my older brother when I was just a little younger than Ven." She kept laughing so hard that she snorted. That caused Terra and Ven to laugh too.

They ended up watching the meteor shower together. Even after it ended, they continued to stargaze for a long time. Ven was leaning against Aqua's shoulder, and just about to fall asleep, when she said, "Oh, by the way, Terra, I made good luck charms for us, for our Mark of Mastery Exam tomorrow."

She gently stood up, and Ven wiped the sleep from his eyes. She fished the items from her inventory, and tossed one at Terra. She also tossed one to Ven. "I made one for each of us."

Terra held up the star-shaped pendant. "It's cute."

Ven yawned. "Is this what you were working on this afternoon?"

"Yup. They're called Wayfinders. I read online that somewhere, there's this star-shaped fruit that represents and unbreakable connection. And if you carry charms that resemble it, you and your friends can never be driven apart. You'll always find your way back to each other." She smiled.

"That's dumb," Ven said, yawning again.

Terra ruffled his hair. "Why do you always insult her?"

Ven swatted Terra's hand away. "She knows what I mean." He wrapped it around Mizz Piggy's neck, and cuddled the doll close to his heart. "Aqua knows that I appreciate it. I don't need to tell her that."

Aqua nodded. "Yup. Ven just has a weird way of showing affection."

"Your patience is unbelievable, Aqua," Terra complimented.

They all laughed.


	48. The Resolution II

"Okay, time for bed, Ven," Aqua said when she realized that the three of them had spent too long stargazing.

"No," Ven argued, with a yawn. "You can't tell me what to do."

Aqua shrugged. "Says the kid that's gonna fall asleep during our mark of mastery exam tomorrow." She took her cellphone out of her pocket and glanced at it. "Actually, since it's 1 am, the exam is later today."

Ven knew she was right, but didn't want the moment of the exam to arrive. He wanted to stay with Terra and Aqua for just a moment longer. So he said, "No."

"Ven, go to sleep," Terra demanded.

The teenager finally acquiesced. "Fine, whatever." He trudged away.

With a chuckle, Aqua began to follow him. However, a hand reached out to touch her shoulder. "Aqua," Terra called out.

"Hm?" she replied, turning her head just enough to meet his gaze.

"Remember what you said a while ago? About the mark of mastery exam?"

"What did I say?"

"How once we reached our dreams, you'd have an answer for me?"

"An answer?" she repeated, her expression perplexed.

He took a few steps closer to her, while wrapping his arms around her shoulders. He rested his chin atop of her head. "Don't pretend like you don't remember. I hate when you do that."

She rested the back of her head against his chest. Looking up into his eyes, she teased, "What if I actually forgot?"

He wasn't laughing. His beautifully long eyelashes fluttered as his eyes wandered away. "So you really have forgotten, huh?"

"Terra, what did I forget?" She reached up to stroke his cheek.

"Does that mean that I'm not special to you?"

Aqua's eyebrows creased. "What are you talking about? Of course you're special to me."

"How special?" Terra asked, turning her around to face him. Staring into each other's eyes once again, Aqua mumbled, "Ohhhhh…" She wriggled out of his grasp. "That question."

Placing his hands in his pockets, Terra explained, "You said you'd tell me when we've both become keyblade masters."

"Then…" she crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Why are you bringing it up now? Couldn't you have waited until tomorrow, _Master Terra?_ " She emphasized his name, a playful grin spreading across her face.

A grin spread across Terra's face as well. "I've been waiting forever, _Master Aqua._ "

"Then I'm sure that you have an idea as to what my answer will be, right?" She put her hands together so that her fingers formed the shape of a heart. She placed it over her chest.

A sigh of relief escaped him. He nodded. "I hope so."

"Then don't worry about it. Focus on reaching your dream. And I'll focus on reaching mine."

"Fine." He chuckled. "But how about a kiss for good luck?"

She rolled her eyes, while all the all the blood in her body flooded to her cheeks. "Come and get one."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. I don't deliver." And she stood there, in front of him, blushing, while the moon cast its glow on her figure. A cool, nighttime breeze caused her clothes to flutter. She rubbed her arms to warm herself up. "Well?"

Terra took a few steps toward her. He hugged her, pulling her closer to him. He locked his lips with hers. She allowed her arms to drape around his shoulders. It was a great kiss.

"Okay, okay, that's enough," she said, pushing away from him. "We have an exam tomorrow."

"I love you."

"Huh?!" Aqua's looked like he had just said that a bear attacked Ven.

"I said I love you," Terra repeated.

Aqua covered her face with her hands. "Don't say such embarrassing things! I need to be able to focus for the exam!"

Terra gripped her shoulders. "Then after the exam, I want to hear you say the same to me. Okay?"

"Of course I love you, Terra," she whispered.

Now was Terra's turn to be shocked. "Huh?!"

"Nothing!" she yelled as she marched away.

And Terra smiled. He had a really good feeling about the Mark of Mastery exam.


	49. Test Anxiety

Saturday morning.

The day of the exam.

And Ventus hadn't slept a wink.

He kept having that same weird dream. He awoke several times that night, sweating, nervous, and afraid. At a point he debated seeking out Terra or Aqua for comfort. But he didn't want to bother them. Not on the night before their Mark of Mastery Exam. So he stayed awake, clutching Miss Piggy. It had been a rough night.

He was exhausted.

Nonetheless, Ven got dressed and headed to the throne room.

The day of the exam.

And Aqua was talking to her brother over the phone. "Good luck," Rio told her. "You'll definitely earn it."

"I hope so. I really hope so. I'm so nervous."

"Don't be, Sis. You've worked so hard for this."

"But what if I'm just like Mom? What if I don't earn the mark? What if I become bitter and filled with darkness?"

"Aqua, breathe. You can do this. I believe in you. But more importantly, you believe in yourself. There's nothing my precious little sister can't handle. Okay?"

She nodded. "Okay. Thanks Rio."

"You're welcome. Now go out there and become Master Aqua! And don't forget to call me as soon as you get the good news!"

"Of course."

"Goodbye."

"Bye Big Bro."

She hung up her phone.

Excitedly, Aqua hurried to the throne room.

The day of the exam.

And Terra stood at the summit, overlooking the mountains. He took a deep breath. "This is it, Terra," he told himself. "The day you'll become _Master Terra_." He smirked. "And Aqua's boyfriend." He proudly placed his hands at his side. From the corner of his eye, he saw a black-cloaked figure approach him. Turning around, he noticed the old, bald man with beady yellow eyes. He asked, "Hi, are you lost sir?"

The old man smiled a cheeky smile. He placed both hands on Terra's shoulders, and gripped tightly. Putting his face closer, the old man deeply inhaled Terra's scent. Then he pounded his hand against Terra's chest, right over his heart. "Yes, yes, you'll do fine," said the old man.

"Excuse me?"

The old man released Terra. "In the exam. I am excited to see your performance. I shall see you soon, young man."

"What the fuck?" Terra shivered as he watched that old man meander away.

However, Terra made his way to the throne room.

There, Master Eraqus stood on the raised platform that held the two thrones. Today, he looked more serious than the three students had ever seen. Behind him sat the old man that had acted creepy toward Terra. Terra tried to avoid eye contact. Ven, too, tried to avoid eye contact with that old man, because his yellow eyes reminded Ven of the dream that kept waking him the night before. But Ven told himself to calm down. After all, it was just a dream, right?

Master Eraqus began speaking, "Today, you will be examined for the Mark of Mastery. Not one, but two of the Keyblade's chosen stand here as candidates. This is neither a competition nor a battle for supremacy—"

Ven mumbled under his breath, "A competition is a battle for supremacy, Old Man."

"Not a test of wills, but a test of hearts," Eraqus lectured on. Terra and Aqua stood at attention, focused on each of his words. "Both of you may prevail… or neither. But I am sure that our guest, Master Xehanort, did not travel all this way to see our youngest prospects in years, fall short of the Mark." Master Eraqus glanced at his friend. Then he faced his students. "I trust you two are ready?"

The two nodded and replied in unison. "Yes."

"Then…" he summoned his keyblade. "Let the examination begin!" Activating his magic, he conjured several orbs of concentrated light. Terra and Aqua assumed fighting poses. They nodded to each other. They charged toward the orbs. Right as they landed the first blows, the orbs swelled in size, and began emitting a black substance.

 _That's weird_ , Aqua thought. She looked to Terra to see what he was thinking. He was completely focused on attacking the orbs. She glanced at Master Eraqus. He seemed perplexed as well. _This isn't his doing, is it?_ she thought. She attacked several more orbs, and they dissipated. A stray one floated toward Ven. He wasn't paying attention. He seemed lost in thought.

"Ven!" Aqua shouted. In a flash, he regained his senses, summoned his keyblade and attacked it. "Don't worry about me, Aqua," he told her. "You two focus on the exam!"

 _This is weird. Like, really, really weird,_ Aqua thought. "Something isn't right, Ven! Go back to your room!"

"No way!" Ven shouted. "I've been waiting for the chance to see you two become masters! I'm not gonna miss it." He smiled. "Plus, it's good practice for my own exam!"

Terra chuckled. "That's right Aqua. Ven's been training as hard as we have. He can take care of himself."

 _But this isn't right_. She thought. She looked to Master Eraqus. He didn't say anything. _Master isn't stopping the exam…Well it must be fine, then, right?_ "Okay, then. But stay sharp Ven!"

She used aero magic to clear out an entire section of infected orbs. Terra ran in a straight line, slashed, and cleared out and entire row. Ven stayed back, only attacking the orbs that strayed toward him. And soon, they cleared out all of them.

Once that was done, Master Eraqus spoke again. "That was… unexpected," he admitted. "But one must keep a still heart even in the most trying of circumstances. That was an excellent test." A few beads of sweat popped up on his forehead as he lied, "One that I chose to let unfold."

 _Liar._ Terra thought. He glanced at Aqua. Based on her narrow-eyed expression, he could tell that she could tell that their master was lying. Master Eraqus kept speaking, "Which brings us to our next trial. Aqua, Terra, the two of you shall face each other in combat. Remember, there is no winner—only truths. For when equal powers clash, their true nature is revealed."

They nodded. Aqua took her stance. She happened to be standing in front of a window. The angle of light behind her cast an angelic glow around her. Terra smiled. Aqua smiled as well, her cheeks flushing.

"Begin," announced Eraqus.

Terra rushed toward Aqua. She rushed toward him. _Clang! Clang! Clang!_ Their blades rang out against each other. Aqua grunted, because Terra was stronger than her. And Terra knew that. He put pressure on her, moving forward, swinging his keyblade, forcing her backwards. _Clang, clang, clang!_

She jumped back to put some distance between them. He rushed toward her. _Clang!_ More force in each blow. More power in each strike. He began to push her back toward the wall. "Aero!" she said, summoning wind to stop him. She jumped over his head and landed behind him. Right as she was about to hit him, he countered. She was knocked back several feet and she stumbled a little.

Her eyes widened, and her hands trembled. She bit her bottom lip and exhaled through her nose. For a brief moment, she looked nervous.

And Terra noticed that there was something oddly beautiful about that.

He chuckled. But it wasn't Terra's typical good-natured "Haha". Aqua was a little startled, but she focused, and ran toward him. "Fire!" she shouted, as she lunged for a fire strike. Terra sidestepped and retaliated. He landed a blow on her side. She fell to the ground, rolled and jumped back up.

"Terra suddenly got quicker," he heard Ven mumble.

Terra felt quicker. He also felt more powerful. He charged at Aqua once more, overpowering her with each attack. She stumbled, and jumped out of the way. He followed, swinging his keyblade madly. She was on defensive, rolling, ducking, cartwheeling out of the way. "T-terra!" she called out, nervously.

He kept swinging, and swinging, and swinging, until he had her cornered against a wall. She couldn't dodge anymore. "Terra!" she shouted. "Terra, wait!" This time, she was genuinely frightened.

And there was definitely something beautiful about that.

He wanted to see more fear. He wanted to dominate her, to overpower her. He wanted to make her submit, to make her beg for mercy.

He once again brought his keyblade down upon her. This time, his blow was strong enough to knock hers out of her hand. It slid across the room. Before she could call it back to her hand, he hit her in the gut with his blade. She coughed, and fell to her knees. He struck her on the shoulder, and then on the side, near her ribs. Then he knocked her on the head, so that she fell down, flat on her face, knocked out. Then, Terra gathered all his strength, ready to strike into a final blow. The tip of his keyblade glowed with a wicked black light.

Ven shrieked, "Terra! Terra!"

"Enough! Terra!" shouted Master Eraqus.

He didn't listen. Terra slammed his blade downward.

"Stop!" Master parried the blow just in time. The recoil sent Terra flying backwards, through the wall of the room, and onto the grass outside. Master Eraqus was brought to his knees. Ven ran to Aqua's side. "Aqua! Aqua!" he shouted. He held her and shook her. "Aqua! Wake up! Aqua!"

She blinked a few times and woke up. "Huh?"

"Ven, take her to her room," Master Eraqus demanded. "I'll deal with Terra."

"Right," Ven obeyed.

Master readied himself to fight Terra. But when Terra got up, he seemed back to normal. "What?" said the young man, horror-stricken. "Why did I…?" Master Eraqus let his guard down and exhaled.

Master Xehanort smirked. "He performed better than I expected," the wicked old man said to himself.


	50. Fear of Failure

Master Eraqus and Master Xehanort deliberated alone in the throne room. "Young Terra definitely lacks the capability of controlling the darkness in his heart," the latter said. "It was quite horrific to watch, Eraqus."

Still stunned by Terra's vicious performance, Master Eraqus said, "He has never done such a thing before and he has fought her many a time. I don't understand."

"What I understand, is that it was a terrible thing for a child to watch."

"Do you mean Ventus?" Master Eraqus closed his eyes and shook his head. "Yes the poor boy was mortified. But he knows that was abnormal behavior from Terra. Something was amiss."

"Was it, though? You said yourself that when equal powers collide, their true nature is revealed." Master Xehanort lowered his head and pretended to be appalled. "What a shame that his true nature is so violent."

Eraqus had spent four years training Terra. The master knew that the young man was a gentle, powerful oaf, who genuinely loved his fellow students like family. That violent man who went haywire during the test wasn't Terra. Something had possessed the guy, just like something had possessed the glowing orbs during the first half of the exam. And wasn't it strange that Terra acted like this during the only instance when Xehanort was present? Eraqus eyed Xehanort closely, attempting to determine whether or not Xehanort showed any signs of guilt.

No, Xehanort seemed equally distraught by the situation. Then again, Eraqus knew that Xehanort could be a pretty convincing actor. But Xehanort's days of deceitfulness were far in the past, right? Xehanort had turned to the light. Xehanort was a good friend, an honest man… right? Master Eraqus dwelled on these thoughts as he said, "I shall go check on Aqua's condition. Once I know that she is fine, we can deliberate about awarding her the Mark of Mastery."

Xehanort nodded. "Very well then. Very well then."

Aqua was lying in bed, with Ven keeping her company. He had given her and ice pack and a healing potion. "You'll be fine in a jiffy," he told her. She nodded. But in her face was etched the sense of betrayal. So Ven attempted to console her, "I don't know what came over him, Aqua."

She agreed, "I didn't even feel like I was fighting Terra. There was so much darkness in his heart. I don't understand…"

A knock on the door. Master Eraqus entered. "How are you faring, Aqua?"

"I'll be fine."

"Are you still hurt?"

"A little bruised, but I'm fine." She tried to laugh it off. "What about Terra? Do you know what happened?"

"Do not worry about him. Focus on resting. I shall check up on you later tonight." Master left the room.

Aqua looked really frustrated. Ven reached out to hold her hand. "Terra once told me that it's okay to cry. It's okay to scream. It's okay to be mad or angry or furious. Just let it out, Aqua. Please, tell me what you're thinking."

She shook her head. "It's dumb, really."

"I'm dumb, so I don't care," he joked, smiling at her. "Aqua, you're always helping me. Let me help you." The look in his eyes was full of determination. He squeezed her hand.

"You're so sweet…" She squeezed his hand as well. With a deep breath, she admitted "Last night, he told me that he loves me. Then today, he attacks me like I'm a demon. How can he kiss me yesterday and then try to kill me today? It doesn't make any sense…"

"He said he loves you?" Ven repeated.

She nodded.

Ven blushed. "What! No way! Since when?"

She smiled a little. "Since forever. You never noticed?"

"No."

"Wow, you're so dense Ven."

Meanwhile, Terra sat on the steps of the courtyard, contemplating his actions. His head was resting in his hands. His face was dripping tears. His shoulders were shuddering. "The darkness…where did it come from?" he sobbed. "Why did I give in to it? How could I have lost so much control?"

"Do you think the solution is to cry about it?" asked a familiar voice. Turning around, Terra saw Old Man Xehanort walking down the stairs. "Terra, this morning I saw potential in your eyes. Has it faded away solely because of a lapse in your control?"

Terra gawked at his hands, as if they were foreign objects. "But there is darkness in me," Terra whispered.

"The darkness is nothing to fear."

"Nothing to fear? But I hurt Aqua!"

"I will say it again, young Terra. The darkness is nothing to fear."

"What do you mean? I don't understand, Sir. Help me to understand!"

"That is Master Xehanort to you, boy." He walked past Terra. Standing in the middle of the courtyard, Master Xehanort, with his hands behind his back, lectured Terra. "Has Eraqus taught you nothing? Do you not know that darkness cannot be destroyed? Only channeled?"

"Well, yes. I know that, but—"

"Then this is not a time to weep. This is an opportunity to become stronger. Understand?"

Terra nodded. "Yes. Thanks, Master Xehanort."

The old man continued to walk around the courtyard, while Terra ran up the stairs, back to his room. A wicked grin seized the old man's face. He chuckled to himself as he meandered away.

Thus, Terra sat in his room, once more thinking about his actions during the Mark of Mastery exam. "I was so overwhelmed with the darkness that I lost control of myself. But I won't ever let it happen again."

In the midst of his turmoil, a knock sounded on his door. Master Eraqus entered into his room. "Terra…" The master heaved a sigh. "Where to begin? I am shocked, frankly. First of all, I know you, Terra. That wasn't your true nature, right?"

"Of course not."

"Then what happened?"

"I don't know. I don't know what came over me."

"Be honest with yourself Terra. What is it that caused you to lose control?"

"I-I don't know. I really don't."

"Terra, seriously."

"I really don't know," Terra insisted.

"Were you afraid of losing? Was is lust for power?"

"I don't know!" Terra shouted. "I don't know where the darkness came from! But what I do know is that I won't let it happen again. I'll learn to control the darkness inside of me."

Master Eraqus shook his head. "How can you control that which you do not understand?"

"I don't need to understand it in order to control it, Master. I know that I'm strong enough to fight it if it ever happens again. That's all I need to understand."

"But Terra—"

"Darkness cannot be destroyed," Terra insisted. "Once it's in my heart, it's in my heart. I can't change that. I can only channel it, control it, prevent it from hurting the people I love. That's the only thing I can do."

"No, no, Terra, that isn't the right state of mind. The way to fight darkness isn't by suppressing it. One cannot simply deny its existence, nor can one try to refute all traces of darkness from his heart."

"So then are you telling me to embrace it?"

"No. Listen to me Terra. It is true that you must fight the darkness. You cannot give it refuge in your heart. You must, with every ounce of willpower and strength, resist it. You must combat it with all of your might. For if you embrace it, you will only strengthen it."

Terra nodded.

"But you will not have the power to resist any sort of darkness in your heart until you admit that it exists, and have come to terms with the reasons why. I want to help you with this. I want to believe that during the exam, there was a momentary, but dangerous, lapse in your judgement, Terra. That it was something unusual, something that perhaps, corrupted you. But I need you to explain to me what happened during the exam. What were you thinking?"

Terra shook his head. He didn't want to admit that, even for a moment, he had listened to a sadistic desire to hurt Aqua. "I don't know, Master. I really don't."

"You don't know what you were thinking during the exam?" Master Eraqus frowned deeply.

"No. I… it's all a blur…" Terra didn't like lying, but he couldn't tell the truth.

Master Eraqus said, "Terra, listen to me. I tell you this as your master because I mean the best for you. Every heart has light and darkness. Everyone has flaws. There are things that I have thought, things that I have done, that I am not proud of. There are thoughts that I have that I wish I could ignore, thoughts that I have ignored. And those are the things that I still struggle with today."

"What do you mean?"

"For instance, I'm lazy. Unbearably lazy."

Terra chuckled. "Yeah."

"But I never want to admit it. And because I don't admit it, I cannot work to fix it." He shook his head in shame. "And because I have never even attempted to fix my sin of sloth, I have shirked all my responsibilities of raising Ven. You and Aqua took it upon yourselves to care for him. And have I ever once thanked you two for it? No." Eraqus sighed. "If not for you and Aqua, I don't know what I would have done with Ven." He placed a hand on Terra's shoulder, and the other hand over his own heart. "So thank you for that, Terra. And that is the honest truth. The truth that eases the darkness in my own heart. Even as I say that, I feel a stronger sense of conviction to be the guardian that Ven needs."

"You're welcome, Master."

Eraqus continued, "I am not perfect. And I never will be. But I have learned the hard way that one must first accept and understand his faults and weaknesses before he can find the road to fixing them. If you deny the real reason for the darkness, then you cannot fight it properly. Denying it will cause it fester, and allow it to grow. You must understand the shortcomings of your own heart and accept them. So Terra, please, tell me what you were thinking. I won't judge you. I want to help."

Terra's hands tensed into fists. He just couldn't admit that he was overwhelmed by the thrill of power and lust. So he said, "I don't know where it came from, but I won't let it happen again. I'm know I'm strong enough to stop it from happening again."

Master Eraqus looked his student right in the eye. "Terra. I'm ashamed of you."

The Master left the room.

Terra, stunned, felt like a glass statue that had been broken to a million pieces. He punched his bedroom wall, smashing a hole in it. He ran his hands through his hair and sat on his bed.


	51. The Results Are In

Sunday.

The day after the disastrous exam.

Master Eraqus and Master Xehanort stood on the raised platform in the throne room while Aqua and Terra stood in front of them. Ven stood off to the side, watching. Aqua kept stealing glances at Terra. The older student was so forlorn that he slumped over, hands in his pockets, and stared at the ground. Aqua wanted to say something to cheer him up. But she didn't know what.

Besides, they hadn't spoken since the incident. He hadn't bothered to talk to her. She didn't know how to feel about that. Her rational thinking told her that Terra was avoiding her because he was ashamed, and perhaps fearful of hurting her again. Perhaps he wanted to allow her to focus on healing. But a cynical side of her told her that Terra had indeed wanted to hurt her, and that, perhaps, seeing her again would rekindle that urge in him.

She felt that uneasiness now, standing next to him. But she was sure that it would disappear as soon as he apologized. She simply wanted to hear him apologize. She wanted to hear, from his own mouth, an explanation as to why he had gone berserk. She wanted to blame it all on the darkness that had corrupted the balls of light, yesterday. Maybe it too corrupted Terra?

Or maybe Terra had always been that way. Perhaps yesterday, he finally allowed his true nature to show.

Master Eraqus had started speaking. Aqua tried to focus. "Terra, Aqua, the Mark of Mastery Exam took quite an unexpected turn yesterday in more ways than one. Terra, your lust for power awakened the latent darkness in your heart. You clearly succumbed to that darkness and injured your fellow student. For that, you have fallen short of the Mark of Mastery."

Terra shrugged. "Of course." Aqua noticed that he seemed angry. His muscles tensed and a scowl seized his face. She placed her hand over her heart and looked to the ground.

"Aqua," Master Eraqus called out. "You showed great skill in battle, as well as a keen eye for recognizing darkness. You were the first to notice that Terra wasn't in his typical state of mind. You were also quick to consider his well-being after the exam. It seems that you were able to forgive him, even before he has forgiven himself. You are a heart of strong light."

"Master…" Aqua mumbled.

"Therefore, Aqua, you have shown the qualifications of the Mark of Mastery."

Aqua's arms dropped to her side. "I-I passed?" She looked up. "Master, I passed? I couldn't even fight Terra! I was too weak!"

"You were not weak, Aqua," said the master. "It takes a strong heart to battle such darkness."

She shook her head. "But I—"

Terra interrupted, "Just accept it, Aqua."

Those were the first words he'd spoken to her since yesterday. And there was so much resentment behind them. It startled her. He marched away. Ven marched after him, yelling, "Terra!"

Aqua trembled. She mentally debated whether to follow him. Fortunately, Master Eraqus said, "No, let him be."

She nodded. And she noticed that Master Xehanort began walking away.

Ven caught up to Terra who was, once again, sitting on the courtyard steps. "Terra what's with you?" Ven asked. "First you go crazy during the Mark of Mastery Exam, then you get angry at Aqua?"

Terra did not reply.

"What's wrong with you? What's your problem? Terra, tell me what's going on!"

"You're just a kid Ven. I can't tell you what I was thinking during that exam."

Ven backed away in disgust. "W-what do you mean? You didn't seriously want to hurt her, right?"

"Leave me alone, Ven. Go to your room."

"I'm just trying to help, Terra! Stop acting like this. Aqua loves you. So you shouldn't—"

"Go to your room!" Terra roared.

Ven roared back, "Stop being an asshole!" and he ran away.

Meanwhile, Aqua sat on one of the thrones in the throne room. Master Eraqus sat in the other. She told him, "I don't think I deserve it, Master. During yesterday's exam, I was terrified. I could make Terra snap out of it. And even now, I'm not so sure what to do about him."

"Neither am I," Master Eraqus honestly told her. "Aqua, being a keyblade master isn't about being infinitely wise, infinitely fearless, or infinitely strong. It is about striving to make the right choices, possessing the desire to protect others, and having the courage to take action when you notice something amiss. I saw that in you yesterday. I believe you have the capability to become a wonderful master."

"Thank you… but I still feel like I'm not ready. I honestly thought I was going to fail. So this is a surprise for me."

"Shall I tell you a personal story, Aqua?"

She nodded.

"When I was but a few years older than you, I too took my Mark of Mastery exam, alongside your mother and Xehanort. I had been training for years, but I still felt inadequate compared to my fellow students. I had braced myself for failure, yet, I also had a strong desire to succeed. And I did succeed, Aqua—much to the surprise of my fellow students. They didn't succeed their first try. And for some reason, I felt guilty about that. I felt that my master chose incorrectly. Even to this day, I occasionally second guess myself. I ask for second opinions and question my choices. I struggle to control the darkness in my own heart. I am not perfect Aqua. But my master knew that, already. The day he awarded me the Mark, he sat me down and told me the same thing that I shall tell you." He placed his hand on Aqua's shoulder. "Aqua, the Mark of Mastery doesn't mean perfection. It simply means that you have mastered the ability to continuously strive for perfection. That is, you've learned to be a lifelong student."

She placed her hand on top of his hand, on her shoulder. She smiled. "So do you honestly believe that I am ready for this?"

"Yes, _Master_ Aqua. You must believe in yourself as I believe in you."

"Alright then. I will. Thanks Master." She stood up. "I'm pretty sure that I need to talk to Terra right now. My heart is telling me that I need to resolve this issue before it gets out of hand. Do you mind if I do that, Master?"

"Go ahead."

Aqua nodded, and walked away. Master Eraqus leaned back onto his throne and said, "I wonder what our Master would think of me now?" He smiled. "I hope he would say that I made him proud. Right Xehanort?" Eraqus looked around. "Oh wait, where did Xehanort go?" He stood up. "Xehanort?" Frowning, Eraqus said, "That's weird. I didn't even notice when he left."

Out of the blue, Master Eraqus's cell phone rang. "Oh, that must be Xehanort." But the Caller ID wasn't Xehanort. He answered it. "Hello?"

"Eraqus. It is I," said Master Yen Sid, over the phone. "I have important news to tell you."


	52. Talk to Me

After his conversation with Terra, Ventus returned to his room feeling a heart-churning sense of dread. Ven laid down on his bed, cuddling Mizz Piggy. "I have this terrible feeling in my chest," he told his doll. He shut his eyes and breathed quick, shallow breaths. "I'm panicking. My heart won't stop racing. Something bad is going to happen. Something like, really, really bad is going to happen."

"You're right," said a boy's voice.

"Mizz Piggy!?" Ven exclaimed, opening his eyes.

"No, you idiot," the voice said again. Ven turned his head to see a teenage boy, perhaps his age, clad in a red-and-black bodysuit, complete with a red-and-black grass skirt and knee-high leather boots. He wore a black, helmet-like mask over his face, shielding his identity. Ven sat up. Ven rubbed his eyes. Ven stared at the armored boy. "Are you seeing this too, Mizz Piggy?"

The masked boy got angry. "It's a fucking doll, you piece of shit! Stop talking to it!"

Ven laid his head down. "I must be dreaming again," he tried to convince himself. "Haha. Or I'm going insane. I'm hallucinating."

The masked boy leaned against Ven's desk. "You're such a fucking idiot, Ventus."

Ven tried to ignore the guy by turning his head toward his window. "Just ignore it Ven. Look at the clouds. What a beautiful day."

"Fine, ignore me. That's exactly what Terra will do to you when you beg him not to leave."

Ven tried not to listen. He told himself, "Don't pay it any attention Ven. You know that Terra will eventually leave. He'll still be your friend even if he does."

"No he won't. He'll go away forever. He'll forget all about you, Ven. He's going to cut off all ties with you."

Ven struggled not to listen.

"And he's going to take Aqua with him." A slight pause to chuckle. "Dead or alive."

Ven summoned his keyblade and jumped out of bed. "Shut up! Shut up! You're a figment of my imagination! Shut up!"

"Can't say I didn't warn ya~!" mused the red-and-black boy as he walked through a portal of darkness.

Ven sat down on his bed again. "I'm going crazy, Mizz Piggy," Ven told his doll. His heart was tap-dancing in his chest. "First that dream, then Terra goes berserk, and now I'm seeing and hearing things."

Mizz Piggy couldn't reply. She is, in fact, a doll. Frustrated, Ven threw her against the wall. "Why am I talking to you?!" he shouted. He plopped down on his bed once more. "But who else can I talk to? Aqua's frustrated. Terra's being a jerk. Master Eraqus doesn't say anything useful..." He sighed and picked up the doll. "If not for you, I'd be all alone again. I don't want to be alone…"

If only Mizz Piggy could speak.

"You're right, I'm not alone." He reached into his inventory and pulled out his Wayfinder. "An unbreakable connection, right Mizz Piggy? Terra, Aqua and I have a bond that can't be broken, no matter what." He draped the pendant around Miss Piggy's neck and hugged his doll close to his chest. "So when I hug you like this, maybe I'm hugging Terra and Aqua."

He stood like that for a little while.

"Come on Miss Piggy, let's just walk around for a little bit to clear our minds."

Around that same time, Aqua searched around the palace. Finally, she saw Terra sitting on the staircase leading down to the courtyard. He looked defeated, as if he had been the one injured yesterday. Aqua took a moment to think about what she would say. Perhaps she should start by asking him why he had attacked her? No, maybe it would be best to tell him that she was okay and she simply wanted to hear an apology? Or maybe it would be better to sit beside him and be quiet until he spoke up?

She took a deep breath. "Terra?" she called out. She took a few steps closer to him. "Terra, we should talk." She attempted to sit beside him. He stood up and backed away, as if she was a threat to him. "Back off," he demanded.

"Terra, what's going on?"

He kept silent.

"Terra, I love you. I want to help."

His eyes widened. He was briefly dumbfounded.

"Why aren't you saying anything? Why are you acting like this?"

Terra winced. He turned around so that she couldn't see his face. "What do you think?"

"I don't understand. Just talk to me Terra..." She placed both hands over her heart and fought back tears. He heard her sniffles. Turning around, once more, he saw her struggling not to cry. "No, no, Aqua, don't cry." He started to reach out to caress her cheek, but he stopped halfway and retracted his hand. "Look, just leave me alone." He strode toward the throne room.

She watched as he disappeared inside. Frustrated, Aqua took out her wayfinder and clasped it in her hands. "An unbreakable connection, right?" she whispered. Then she hurried after him. The two entered the throne room right as Master Eraqus was finishing his conversation with Master Yen Sid on the phone. "Yes, I understand," said the Master. "Very well. Goodbye."

"Terra, listen," Aqua begged, grabbing his hand.

"What part of leave me alone don't you understand?" he growled, pulling away.

Master Eraqus spoke up, "Actually, I need to speak with the both of you. I have just received word from one of my friends, Master Yen Sid. He is a very wise man that monitors the status of the worlds around us. There seem to be creatures born of negative emotions running amok. He calls them unversed. They are upsetting the balance of light and dark, causing distress and chaos. It is our duty as wielders of the keyblade to protect worlds from this upset, and maintain the proper balance. Therefore, I shall be sending you two out into the worlds to strike down the unversed and protect the light."

Master Eraqus continued, "Also, it seems that Master Xehanort has departed. I am not sure where he went, and according to Yen Sid, he is not answering his phone. I wonder if he knows of this unversed threat." Master Eraqus rubbed his fingers against his goatee, as he said, "I wonder if he knows the reason behind this unversed threat. I am not sure. Either way, please be on the lookout for him. Should you find him, please relay to him the message that I have given you." He faced Aqua. "Aqua, consider this your first task as a Keyblade Master." He faced Terra. "Terra, consider this a second chance—a test of will against the darkness in your heart. Perhaps I shall reconsider awarding you the Mark if you prove worthy. I want both of you to travel together to accomplish this task, for it is dangerous to go alone."

"Yes Master," Aqua said.

Terra kept quiet. Master Eraqus raised his voice. "Terra?"

"Yes Master," the young man grumbled.

"Very well then. You have received your instructions. You are dismissed."

Master Eraqus walked away. Aqua mumbled under her breath, "So our lazy bum Master isn't going to come with us?" She rolled her eyes. Then she brushed her bangs out of her face and turned to face Terra.

But he was already gone.

She hurried toward the courtyard. "Terra, wait!" she shouted.

He ignored her. Slamming the shoulder plate that he wore, he activated his keyblade armor. He tossed his keyblade into the sky, and it returned in the form of a motorbike. Jumping onto it, he forged a portal in the sky and zoomed off into it.

Aqua mumbled, "Terra…"

"Aqua!" shouted Ven. He clumsily ran down the steps of the courtyard. "What's going on?"

She sighed. "There's a situation that Terra and I need to handle. It's a mission from Master. No need to worry about it." She was about to activate her armor, but Ven grabbed her hand.

"Aqua, I saw you shout at Terra, but then he flew off. Is he leaving us?"

Aqua stooped down to be at eye level with Ven. "No, he's not. He's just upset or something. Don't worry Ven. I'll go get him."

"No! Aqua!" Ven shouted, squeezing her hand. "Don't go alone. Let me come with you."

She shook her head. "It's dangerous if you come along."

"Why? What's going on?"

Aqua explained, "There are vicious creatures called unversed, popping up all around the different worlds. Master tasked Terra and me to destroy them. But Terra's being ridiculous and left without me. But I'll figure everything out, Ven, so just go back to your room and wait, okay?"

"I can't sit around and wait, Aqua!" he whined. "I can't wait because…" He hesitated. Would she believe him if he told her about the masked boy that appeared out of nowhere? "I can't wait, because I want to try to talk sense into Terra."

"No Ven. Go back to your room." She grabbed his hand and tried to drag him back to his room. He snatched his hand away and insisted, "No, Aqua, you stay here, and I'll go!" He made a mad dash, activated his armor, and summoned his keyblade glider.

"Ven, wait!" Aqua shouted, as she activated her armor and summoned her own glider. Ven flew through the portal that Terra had opened. Aqua followed.


	53. Did I Do That?

Master Eraqus wasn't joking about these unversed.

There were tons of them. Literally, thousands of them crawling around this world. Terra had landed in the middle of a forest that was infested with them. The young man swung his keyblade, eliminating the smaller, roach-like ones in a single stroke. There were larger, rounded ones too. They kept blocking his attacks. The flying jars were annoying, because they kept hovering just slightly out of his reach.

There were some that looked like deranged clowns. They cackled with laughter as Terra defeated them. A few took the form of snakes. It was difficult to see those ones ahead of time. Typically, they lunged out of nowhere. Some were in the shape of black cats, and Terra couldn't tell if it was an unversed or not until he was within its striking distance.

The ones that looked like the silhouette of a mad woman actually frightened Terra. Their wild, black hair covered half of their face, so that they only had one shiny red eye. They moved fast, and were armed with knives. They would repeatedly mumble the phrase, "Mommy loves you," and upon defeat, emitted a blood curdling shriek of agony.

"These things are fucking crazy," Terra complained.

He fought several that looked like black bunnies. They seemed cute, but their kicking attacks were nothing to smile about. Some unversed took the shape of giant scissors. Terra's mother had told him never to run with scissors. He could only imagine her reaction if he told her that he was running from scissors.

There were many more unversed, which assumed the shape of a lot of interesting things. Books, tigers, crows, oak trees… The more of these weird creatures that Terra fought, the more he realized that they looked like monsters from a child's nightmares. He came to this epiphany when he fought one that looked like a bunny on a unicycle banging on a bass drum that was strapped to its chest.

"Okay, this is insane," he complained after he had struck it down. "They are endless. I could be here all day." He had been there all day, for the late afternoon sun had set into evening. But the silver lining was that the unversed dropped a lot of munny after they were defeated. If Terra kept fighting them at this rate, he'd probably be able to buy several pairs of Nike Keys shoes.

By now, he had made his way to a stone bridge crossing over a river, leading up to a magnificent, skyscraping castle. A gentle breeze whipped his hair around his face. His phone rang. His phone had been ringing off and on for a while, but because he was fighting unversed, he hadn't had the time to check it. He had several missed calls from Aqua. One missed call from Ven. Also a text from Aqua. _Where are you?_

Terra silenced his phone and returned it to his pocket. He didn't want to deal with them right now. He needed to release his angst on these unversed. So he ran across the bridge, looking for more to fight. He saw a tall, horned one, walking along the stone pathway. Launching himself into the air, he slammed his keyblade so hard that it made a crater in the bridge. But he missed his target, because it had vanished into thin air.

Keeping his guard up, he looked to his left and too his right. "Fool," said a voice from behind. Terra rolled forward. Turning around, he saw that what he had attacked wasn't an unversed. It was a weird looking lady, dressed in black, flowing robes. Her cheek bones were high, her eyebrows were the fleekest, and the "whites" of her eyes were dried-hay yellow. Her skin was deep grey, and she carried a golden staff. Honestly, she looked like she would be an unversed.

"Oops," he said.

"Oops is correct, you monkey. What should I have done if I didn't teleport out of the way of your brutish attack?"

"I didn't mean to attack you. I guess I'm just moving too fast and not looking closely."

"Humans are foolish," she declared, raising her staff high into the air. "I shall make you suffer—" Then she noticed the keyblade in Terra's hand. "Why, what an interesting weapon you possess! A blade in the shape of a key. I wonder if what he told me was true. Can it truly unlock the hearts of men?"

"What man?"

"And why must I answer you?"

"Do you remember his name? Was it Xehanort?"

"Such a rude child. You attack me, then demand answers. Do you know who I am? How dare you insult me?"

Terra realized that he was wasting his time. "Whatever. Bye."

He turned around to leave. The woman pointed the staff at him. The orb on the tip glowed yellow. "Foolish man, a brutish knave, obey my words, become my slave."

A cold chill ran down Terra's spine. He shuddered. Dark essence radiated off of him. With dull eyes, and a blank mind, he faced the witch. "At your command, Ma'am."

"I am Maleficent, you pig," she told him. "Address me as such."

"Madame Maleficent." Terra knelt down before her, his head lowered.

"Good. And your name, child?"

"Terra Smith, of Traverse Town."

"Your purpose?"

"Eliminate the unversed. Find Xehanort."

Maleficent tapped her blood-red fingernails against her pointed chin. "Unversed you say?"

"They are monsters made of negative emotions."

"Interesting. Well, Terra Smith of Traverse Town, I have a quest for you. You shall enter that castle. Upon the uppermost floor is a girl whose beauty is unparalleled in all the land. Hair as gold as sunshine. Skin as fair as sandstone. Eyes bluer than the sky above. She sits, sobbing, for she is to one day marry a prince that she has never once laid eyes upon." With a wave of her hand, Maleficent conjured a wooden stake. "A single prick of her finger on this, the spindle of spinning wheel, shall end her misery. And then you shall collect her heart for me. Are your instructions understood?"

Terra nodded. "Yes, Madame Maleficent."

"See to it then." She cackled in laughter. Spreading out her arms, her figure collapsed into a thin black strip, before fading into thin air.

Under Maleficent's spell, and armed with his keyblade and the spindle, Terra marched forward. "Who goes there!?" shouted the guards when he reached the Castle Gates. With a flick of his keyblade, he knocked them out. Then he busted down the door. Of course this attracted the attention of more guards.

"Intruder!" they shouted. Armed with poles and swords and spears, they charged toward Terra. He lifted his blade, and gathered them all with magnera magic. And he kept walking. He fought his way through guards and walked past frightened maids and servants. Up the stairs, he progressed unopposed. That is, until three old fairy women fluttered in front of him.

"You villain!" said the shortest woman, dressed in a blue gown. "You must be sent by Maleficent to hurt our dear Rose!"

"Our Princess Aurora," corrected the woman in green. "And we won't let you!"

Terra shoved them aside, and kept walking. The old woman in pink blasted Terra in the back with magic. Stumbling, Terra seemed to snap out of it for a moment.

"Huh?" he mumbled.

"Finish the job," demanded a voice in his head. So he raised his keyblade and shouted, "Stop!" The fairies were frozen in place.

Possessed Terra barged into the room where Princess Aurora was. She was weeping, her head laid down on a vanity, paying no attention to her surroundings. Terra stopped moving. He began to snap out of it. "A-are you okay?" he asked.

Startled, the girl nearly fell out of her seat. "Oh dear! Where did you come from?"

He winced. "Actually, where did I come from? How did I get here?"

She wiped her face and giggled. "Are you trying to cheer me up?" She met his eyes. "Are you my prince?" She stood up. Placing her hands behind her back, she inspected Terra. "Well I guess you're handsome. But you're nothing like the boy I met in the glen."

"Boy in the glen?"

She clasped her hands together and spun around. "He's a brunette too, with wide eyes, and a chiseled smile. He sang to me. His voice was deep and majestic. It was magical." With a sigh, she stopped twirling. She sat down. "The man of my dreams. He was supposed to meet me at my home in the glen tonight to celebrate my 16th birthday. Suddenly, my aunts told me that they are actually my guardian fairies, and that I'm not some random girl. I am a princess. And today I am to meet my parents for the first time, and then meet the prince that I am to marry in a few years. And that from now on I must give up my simple life to be royalty! Did they expect me to not be upset? I have been lied to my entire life! My name isn't even Rose! I'm Aurora!" She rested her head against the vanity. "And worst of all, they won't even tell me why they lied. So I'm really upset. I'm devastated. I really am."

Terra did not know what else to say, so he said, "Oh... Well if it helps, I'll say happy birthday."

Rose/Aurora smiled. "Thank you." Then she pointed to the wooden stake in Terra's hand. "What's that?"

Once again, Maleficent's voice sprung up in his head. "Do it!"

Terra's eyes went dull as he seized the girl's hand, and forced her to touch the tip of the spindle. Immediately, her eyes rolled back in her head. She collapsed onto the floor, motionless.

Terra snapped out of the spell again. "Wh-wh-what?" he asked himself. Upon seeing Princess Aurora fainted on the floor, he knelt down and shook her. "Hey? Are you okay? Hey! Hey!"

"YOU INSOLENT FOOL!" barked that evil voice inside his head. With a darkening of the air, the witch woman appeared in front of Terra again. "Finish the job!"

Terra grabbed at his head. "No! What, what are you doing to me?"

"Steal her heart!"

He didn't want to do it. But he couldn't stop himself. Grasping his keyblade in both hands, he held it over the girl's body. Her light gathered in front of his blade, collecting into a glittering, heart-shaped mass. "Good," Maleficent said, as she snapped her fingers. The light zoomed out of the window, far off into the distant horizon.

Terra dropped to his knees. "What did I just do?"

"You've paid back your debt to me," answered Maleficent. "Because you have helped me, I shall spare your life."

Terra tried in vain to rouse Aurora. "Are you okay? Wake up. Please. Wake up." The princess felt cold. "No… I couldn't have…" He gaped at his own hands. "I didn't…" He stood up and assumed a battle stance. "You! You did this!"

Maleficent cackled with laughter. "You fool! Was it my legs that carried you up those stairs?"

"You did something to me! You took control of me!"

"And why were you so easy to control? Hmm? Compared to all the men who already were in this castle, you were the most willing to do my building."

Terra's arms went limp. "I was?"

"Yes." Maleficent swirled her spiny fingers around the orb that rested atop her staff. "Your heart is tainted with darkness. It was quite easy to manipulate."

"Tainted with darkness?"

"Fury, regret, desire, lust. Those are but a few of the things I sense. A heart as dark and strong as yours can be put to good use, no? Join me, Terra Smith of Traverse Town. Become my second-in-command. You will be rewarded with all your heart desires. Women! Respect! Power! Together, we shall rule all the worlds!"

Terra swung his keyblade at the witch. "No way in hell!"

Maleficent teleported away. "Ah, but you considered it, did you not?"

"No! I would never consider it!"

Maleficent appeared behind him, her lips dangerously close to his ears. She whispered, "What a shame. A heart like yours has no home but in the darkness."

Terra smashed his blade on the ground where she had been standing. But it was too late. Although she was nowhere to be seen, her laughter echoed throughout the room for what seemed like eons.

When all fell silent, Terra once again tried in vain to wake the teenage girl. Panicking, he pleaded, "Wake up! Wake up! Rose or Aurora or whatever you name was! Wake up!"

No response. Terra placed his two forefingers against her neck, hoping to take a pulse. He couldn't find one, so he laid his head against her chest, hoping to hear a heartbeat.

"Get away from her!" shouted the fairies as they rushed into the room. Terra's stop spell had finally worn off. They grabbed Aurora and tugged her away from Terra.

"I didn't mean to hurt her," Terra explained. "I can fix this! How can I fix this?"

The blue fairy blasted him in the gut with magic. "You've done enough! Go away!"

Terra wanted to argue, to beg them to allow him to help. But he could see that they were terrified of him. The last thing they needed was his help. "Fine." He stood up.

As the moon bared it face in the sky, he made his way down the steps, past the corridors, out of the castle, and off of that world. "Maybe Maleficent was right," Terra said as he drifted aimlessly in the space between worlds. "Maybe I do belong in the darkness…"

Meanwhile, the fairies cuddled their darling Aurora. "She was pricked," the pink one said. "And what's worse, her heart was stolen."

"Oh Flora, what shall we do?" asked Fauna, the green one.

"I bet it's Maleficent's doing!" cried Merryweather, the blue one. "Oh our dear Princess! All those years, hiding her in the glen, lying to her, separating her from her parents! All those years trying to prevent her from this doomed destiny! All for naught! Now she's lost!"

"No she's not lost. She's in a deep, deep sleep," Flora said. "And until someone can come to save her, we'll put the entire castle to sleep."

Fauna seemed puzzled. "How should that help the situation?"

"Do you have a better idea, Fauna?"

Nope. So together, the fairies cast a sleeping spell over the entire castle. They tucked Aurora into bed in the highest tower. And they waited.


	54. Project Runaway

"This is completely different from home," Ven muttered. He was leaning against the wall of a red-brick building, in a crowded city, where apartments were stacked atop stores, horse-drawn carriages meandered along cobblestone paths, and the skies were strung with clothes lines. Men dressed in tailcoats and top hats, and women wearing shirtwaists and ankle-length skirts strolled by leisurely.

Ven's hands were trembling. His heart was beating three times faster than the second-hand on a clock. "Come on, Ven, you need to find Terra," he told himself. Yet, he was unable to move from his spot. The thought of getting lost terrified him. He should have considered the consequences of his agoraphobic demeanor before running away. "Maybe I should just go home. This is scary."

His cellphone rang. He took it from his back pocket and glanced at the screen. Aqua was calling. As nice as it would feel to hear her calming voice, he was too afraid of being yelled at by her. So he rejected her call and decided to call Terra. Perhaps hearing Terra's voice would give him the strength he needed to continue this quest.

Unfortunately, Terra didn't pick up. And Aqua called again. Overwhelmed by all this stimuli, Ven decided to silence his phone. He returned it to his back pocket and continued to quietly hyperventilate in his little corner. His eyes darted for something to take his attention away from his panic attack.

He saw a blonde-haired young woman scurrying down the street while holding a mountain of boxes—six of them. "Excuse me," she said, trying to maneuver her way around two old women. A rather large man happened to be walking in the opposite direction, and he bumped right into her, knocking her down. Her boxes scattered. On her butt, on the floor, she looked up, expected to be helped up by the fellow who knocked her over. He grumbled a half-hearted, "Pardon me," and continued about his business.

She rolled her eyes and began collecting her boxes. Before Ven knew it, he was at her side, helping her. "You okay lady?" Ven asked.

She nodded. "Yes, thanks."

"You shouldn't be carrying so many things at once," Ven scolded. He tucked two of the six boxes under his arms. "Let me help you."

"Well aren't you a nice young man?" She giggled. "I appreciate your kindness, but I live a bit far from the city. I don't want your parents to get worried that you've wandered off."

"I'm a not a kid. I can take care of myself."

"Really?" She raised an eyebrow. "You look like a kid to me."

Pouting, Ven turned up his nose. "Do you want help or not lady?"

She laughed. "Sure. Thanks so much." And the two began walking away from the city. "My name is Cinderella, by the way."

"I'm Ventus. But you can call me Ven for short."

They walked for about half an hour, to a small manor tucked into a clearing in the forest. "Well, this is it," Cinderella said. "Thanks for your help. Please do run along now… unless you would like to stay for some milk and cookies before you go. It's the least I can do as thanks."

Ven's eyes brightened. "Chocolate chip?"

She nodded. Ven nodded. So she led him inside the manor.

It was a well-kept abode. In the kitchen, the white stone tiling on the floor was polished to perfection. The marble countertops were too. The mahogany wood cabinets shone like new. Every dish was in its proper place, nothing lurked in the sink, and the dining table was decorated with a vase of flowers and neat paper doilies.

Cinderella set out a jar of cookies for Ven, and poured him a glass of milk. Happily, Ven started to eat. He also watched as Cinderella opened each box and rushed around the house, putting each item where it should be. A pair of shoes, in the closet. A new tablecloth, in the dining room. A book, library. An emerald brooch… she stopped to admire it.

Ven took that moment to mention, "You seem really busy."

Cinderella nodded. "Yes! I must finish my chores, or else I am not allowed to go to the ball tonight."

"The ball?"

"You don't know about the ball? It's only the most extravagant party in all of the kingdom!" She twirled around, raising her arms to the ceiling. "Regal men and women, rich ladies of high standing, dukes and knights! Paupers can pretend to be princes, if just for one evening! All adults of the land are invited." She placed her hands on her hips. "So I guess a child wouldn't pay attention to such adult things."

"I'm not a child!" Ven argued.

Pointing at the mess Ven made on the table and his shirt, Cinderella stated, "You eat like one."

Ven wiped the crumbs from his mouth. "I'm just a messy eater."

Cinderella laughed. "You are too cute Ven. But you really should get home. I'm sure your parents will start looking for you soon enough." She placed a hand on her cheek. "Oh I would hate to make your mother worry."

Ven thought about Aqua, and how worried she must be. Quickly, he glanced at his phone. Twelve missed calls from Aqua. And several texts: _Ven are you safe?_

 _Are you okay? Just let me know that you're safe._

 _Ven please. I'm not angry. I promise._

 _At least text me. I'm worried._

He felt a pang of guilt. So he texted, _I'm fine Aqua._ Then he stood up to leave. "Thanks for the snacks Cinderella."

"You're welcome." She escorted Ven to the door. But, as fate would have it, two teenage girls who seemed a little older than Ven, but younger than Cinderella, barged into the manor. Following them was a middle-aged, sour-faced woman, whose grey hair was styled into the most horrendous of updos. The three of them saw Ven, and shot puzzled looks to Cinderella. Cinderella chuckled nervously and curtseyed to both of them. "Good afternoon, Stepmother, Drizella, Anastasia. Please don't mind Ven. He's a boy from the city who helped me carry the packages you ordered."

Anastasia and Drizella snickered to each other. Stepmother said, "I have a strict rule. No guests in the house while I'm gone." Raising her hand, she smacked Cinderella's face. Then she pointed outside. "Be gone brat."

But Ven wasn't the type to follow orders. "You can't hit her like that, you old hag!" he shouted.

Cinderella shook her head. "No, Ven, it's okay."

"How is that okay!?" Ven shouted. "That's not okay! She's a mean old hag!" To the stepmother, Ven shouted, "You mean old hag!"

Stepmother marched inside, toward the staircase leading up to her room. "Cinderella, remove that child from my household at once."

"Yes stepmother." She grabbed Ven and led him out of the house. Once in the front yard, Cinderella touched her inflamed cheek and blinked back tears. "Ow…"

Ven was livid and speechless. When the sting subsided, Cinderella said, "Thanks for arguing in my favor Ven, but it wasn't your place to do so."

"But—"

"No, Ven, listen to me. When adults speak, children listen. I broke a rule. And I received the punishment I deserved. So let us leave it at that." She placed a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you for your help. Now please go home, okay? I need to finish my chores and then get ready for the ball."

Ven nodded. She returned into her house. Ven sighed as he took out his cellphone. Aqua had also texted, _Where are you? I'll come get you._

He was about to reply when he heard Cinderella scream, "No! Stepmother please!" He saw a window on the second story of the manor open. He watched in horror as Cinderella's stepmother used scissors to cut up her dress into pieces. "That will teach you to sass me," her stepmother said.

"No! No! Please! Stop!" begged the girl. "Stop! I'm sorry!"

Stepmother threw the scraps of the dress out of the window. "Wear that to the ball, you pig-nosed whore." She slammed the window shut. Cinderella's sobs could still be heard from inside.

"That's insane," Ven muttered. He rushed to pick up the scraps of the dress. "Why would she…?" He winced. "All because of me…" He bitterly regretted lashing out at the old hag. "How can I fix this?"

Right as he asked that, a nest of mice scurried toward him. They squeaked. And for some reason, Ven understood their language. "What's that?" he asked. "You said that you guys know how to fix a dress?"

They squeaked.

"And that you're Cinderella's mice friends, and you want to help her?"

They squeaked.

"All you need is a little help from me? Sure! What should I do?"

They squeaked. Ven nodded. He gathered the pieces of the dress, and climbed up the wall of the house, up to the second story window. He knocked on it. A moment later, a teary-eyed Cinderella opened the window. "Ven?" she said.

"Don't worry, we'll help you fix it!" Ven assured her.

"We?"

"Me and the mice!"

"Ven you don't need to get involved. Just go home."

"Cinderella, I'm gonna fix my mistake, okay? And don't worry. My _mom_ knows I'm fine." He handed her the remnants of the dress. She smiled. She nodded.

Several of the mice began working on the dress. One of them jumped into Ven's jacket pocket. Although it was literally squeaking, Ven understood it to mean, "Alright, let's do this. My name is Jaq!" Ven said, "I'm Ven!"

"Okay Ven," said Jaq, "the plan is to fix the dress even better than before! But to do that, we need lots of stuff. Ribbon, lace, cloth, and thread."

"Where can I get that?"

Jaq shrugged. "I dunno."

Ven thought about it. "Probably from a store, I think. That's where Aqua gets all her dumb sowing stuff."

"Who's Aqua?"

"She's kinda like my mom." Ven smiled. So Ven made his way back to town. He walked in and out of shops until he found one that sold the necessary items. Then, he realized that he had another problem. "Geez, I don't have any money," he thought aloud. Therefore, he asked the shopkeeper, "Hey, sir, I really want some ribbon, cloth, lace, and thread for my friend. But I'm broke. Do you think maybe you could spare some?" Ven made a begging puppy face.

The softhearted old man who owned the store felt sympathy for Ven. "Sorry kid, but I can't just give handouts. It's a business. I've grandkids to feed."

"What if I help out? I'm sure you need something."

"Actually, I do." The old man took a box from the counter behind him. "I'll tell you what. If you deliver this package to Old Mister Crenshaw on the corner of 5th and 10th street, I'll give you some old scraps."

Ven had no idea where that was, but he nonetheless nodded.

So Ven wandered around the city. He asked the mouse in his pocket, "You have any idea where we're supposed to be going?"

Jaq replied, "Nope."

Suddenly, Ven and the mouse heard a scream. "Help! Help me!"

So Ven ran toward the noise. He found an old man using a walking cane to fight back a gang of monsters. They were snail-like creatures, with armored spiral shells that they retreated into while the old man attacked. He was being cornered into an ally.

Summoning his keyblade, Ven shouted, "Hey Grandpa! Look out!" He whacked one of the snail things so hard that it slammed into a wall and exploded into a cloud of sparkles. It dropped some munny in its wake. "Whoa, no way! Munny!"

He was distracted long enough to be tackled from behind by one of the snails. Ven recovered, rolled forward, and resumed his fighting stance. The old man asked, "Are you okay young man?"

Ven nodded. "Don't worry about me!" He unleashed a fever of quick strikes, attacking each armored monster until they exploded into munny and sparkles. He panted as he finished off the last one. Once he was sure that the coast was clear, he turned to the old man. "Are you alright, Grandpa?"

"I sure am," he answered. "Thanks to you, sonny. Why, I almost can't believe it! We haven't had monsters in years! The last time it happened, I was just a kid, no older than you. It was the summer of '64 and I was playing with my friends Jack and Johnny…"

While the old man reminisced, Ven wondered aloud, "Maybe those things were the unversed that Aqua was talking about."

"This world is falling apart, if I must say," concluded the old man. "Anyway, sonny, would you mind walking an old man to his house? Heaven knows I'll be in trouble if those things pop up again."

Jaq the mouse complained, "Ven! We gotta hurry!"

Ven petted his head and said, "Just a sec Jaq. We can't leave him hanging."

So Ven walked with the old man until he reached his house. And his house happened to be on the corner of 5th and 10th street. So Ven asked, "Hey, Grandpa, are you Old Mister Crenshaw?"

He nodded. "Why, of course! I'm not the young one, now am I?" He laughed.

Ven handed him the package from his item inventory. "The grandpa at the store told me to deliver this to you."

"Oh well would you look at that!" he exclaimed. "My package! I was heading there to pick it up when those monsters attacked! Looks like you've helped me twice today. Thank you."

"You're welcome," answered Ven, smiling.

With the munny from his battle, Ven was able to get a bunch of material from the nice old man at the store. Then Ven hurried back to Cinderella's house. The mice opened the window so that he could sneak into the room where they were trying to align the pieces to repair Cinderella's dress. Ven watched as the mice threaded several needles, and, working in several groups, pulled together to sow the pieces.

"Let me help,"' Ven said. He tried to thread a needle. It was really difficult. When he finally threaded the needle, the mice showed him how to sow. "Pull the needle through the fabric," said a chubby mouse named Gus, while demonstrating. "But don't stab yourself."

Those instructions were simple enough. Yet, before the sun set, Ven somehow managed to stab himself so many times that his fingers were red. Ven had thought of himself as a very coordinated person. Apparently, he was wrong.

Once the dress was mostly sown together, Ven placed it on a mannequin. He shook his head. "It doesn't look good," he told the mice. The stitching made it seem rather amateur. On the bright side, the dress at least looked presentable.

Jaq said, "Let's add ribbon!"

"Let's add buttons!" suggested another mouse. "She has buttons."

They started adding on to the dress, using the supplies that Ven had obtained. One mouse said, "I'm thinking of making it flowy, like, flowing when she walks."

"No, let's stick to a minimalist approach. Simple. Elegant," another argued.

Ven, who was sowing lace embellishments onto the bodice, said, "This makes it look really fancy."

Another mouse said, "What if we add some colored parts to make it stand out?"

"What if we hem it shorter?" suggested another.

"Let's make it sleeveless!" yet another decided.

Jaq added, "Then we could use this other fabric and let it drape over the shoulder! Like a cape!"

What was once a pink, off-shoulder, long sleeved, a-line style dress, fluffed up by a lot of tulle underneath, became a hodgepodge, tacky, quilt-like ensemble.

It wasn't a high-fashion dress. Frankly, it didn't even look like a dress. But it was made with love and determination. It contained a little piece of the heart of each designer. Ven and the mice beamed at their "masterpiece". Several of the little rodents scurried off to tell Cinderella. She arrived, and gasped in pure joy at the sight of her refurbished dress. Placing her hands over her mouth, she blinked back tears. "Oh my gosh," she managed to say. "It's beautiful."

She pulled Ven into a hug. "Thank you Ven." Kneeling down, she held out her hands so that her little mice friends could jump into them. She brought them to her face and rubbed the tip of her nose against their faces. "And thank you guys. Oh I don't know what I would do without you." Setting them down, she stood up and exhaled in relief. "I'm so happy. I just finished my chores. So I'm going to take a bath, and fix my hair, and wear my dress, and go to the ball!" She clapped her hands. "Thank you so much!"

Ven apologized, "Sorry for getting you in trouble in the first place."

Cinderella placed a hand on his shoulder. "I understand that you were trying to stand up for me. I'm not upset. In fact, perhaps I need to learn a thing or two from you. Maybe I need to stand up to Stepmother." She brushed a wisp of hair out of her face. "Unfortunately, if she kicks me out of the house, I'd have nowhere to go. It feels scary to have nowhere else to go."

Ven clasped her hand in his. "I'm confident that you'll find somewhere. You'll find somewhere that you can be happy, Cinderella."

"You're such a sweet boy." She ruffled his hair. "Your parents raised you well."

"Speaking of parents, I should get going." He checked the time on his cellphone. It was already half-past-seven-pm. He also noticed that Aqua had texted him, _Please stay safe and call me if you need anything._ "Of course, Aqua," he whispered. Then he opened the window, said his final goodbyes, climbed down, and left.

Immediately afterwards, Cinderella underwent a rapid emergency spa session. She took a bath and washed her hair. Her mice friends painted her nails (mani and pedi), painted her face with makeup, and styled her hair. "What a wonderful job, friends," she said, while looking in the mirror. "But please do hurry!" She knew that her mother and stepsisters would be leaving for the ball within the next hour, and she didn't want to miss her only ride there.

Soon she was completely dressed and ready. She rushed downstairs just as a stagecoach pulled up to transport her stepmother and stepsisters to the ball. Upon seeing Cinderella, her stepsisters were astonished. Anastasia, the red-head, asked, "What are you wearing?"

"My dress," Cinderella answered, happily.

"The one that Mother cut up?" asked Drizella, the brunette.

"Well it's fixed now," Cinderella answered.

"Fixed?" the wicked stepmother repeated. "That shabby rag shouldn't be seen in public."

"It's not shabby, Stepmother," the blonde young woman argued.

"Yes it is. It's disgusting. And embarrassing. It would shame us to be seen with you in such a ridiculous outfit. It looks like you tossed together whatever scraps you could find, laying around the house. You're not coming with us."

Cinderella was speechless. Stepmother snapped her fingers. "Hurry up, Drizella, Anastasia. Get in the coach."

The three of them piled into the wagon, their driver whipped the reins, and the horses trotted away. Cinderella, despondent, dropped to her knees. "But Ven and the mice worked so hard…" she mumbled. "Ven and the mice eorked so hard to make this. And I love it." Her shoulders began to shudder. "It's not fair. They did everything they could to make me happy, and yet…" She broke down into tears.

By now, Ven had already activated his armor, and entered the space between worlds. He thought aloud to himself, "She really helped me not to be so anxious anymore. I hope she has fun at the ball."


	55. Hey Mama

"Is this how Rio felt when I ran away?" Aqua grumbled as she called Ven's phone for the seventh time. "Why is he ignoring me? Did someone steal his phone? Did the unversed get him?" She paced back and forth. "Terra isn't answering either. What do I do? I'm a keyblade master. I should know what to do, right?" She pulled at her hair. "Okay, first of all, calm down, Aqua. Ven can take care of himself. He's fifteen years old. He's not a kid anymore. He'll be fine. But he gets scared when he's all alone. He's probably having a panic attack. I hope he at least brought Mizz Piggy." She tried calling again.

No answer.

So Aqua decided to text him. _Ven are you safe?_

And she put her ringer on the highest volume, and placed her phone in her back pocket. "Focus on the tasks at hand, Aqua," she told herself. "Fight unversed, find Terra, and find Master Xehanort."

Aqua was in a bustling, old-timey town. Children ran along the streets, girls in their dresses and boys in their shirts and knickers. Carriages carted around elegant ladies wearing hats so large that they seemed to weigh their head down. Monocle-wearing-men walked with walking canes. Elegant Manors and high-class stores lined either side of a road that wrapped around a mountain, leading up to a tall, gothic castle, whose highest spires touched the heavens.

"This is a really beautiful world," she said, marveling at the castle.

"Why yes it is," said a random old man, who happened to be walking by. "Our landmark is our Castle of Dreams." He pointed his cane up toward the Castle. "Once a year, the Royal Family invites all of use commoners for a night of revelry at the Castle—the annual ball!" He winked at her. "I hope to see you there, young lady. It would be a shame to miss it!"

Aqua nodded. "Thanks. Perhaps I will."

The old man continued upon his merry way. Aqua smiled. But her serendipitous moment was cut short by the sound of a little girl's scream. "EEEEEEK!"

"Must be the unversed," Aqua said, as she summoned her blade, and ran toward the sound.

"Help me! Please!" shouted a little girl, who was corned in an alley by an unversed that looked like a humanoid cheerleader, but armed with a chainsaw.

Aqua jumped into action. She whacked it on the back of the head. Unfazed, it spun just its torso all the way around. Aqua put up a barrier. Sparks flew when the chainsaw grinded against her magic. She ducked underneath the sparks. She smashed the unversed on the back of its knees. It fell forward. But it's legs became rope-like, and wrapped around Aqua's arms.

She was pulled in. The unversed swung its chainsaw. She parried it. The weapon flew out of its hands. Aqua slammed her keyblade. Its grabbed it.

Aqua cast, "Thunder!" Lightning struck. Even though briefly blinded, Aqua managed to wrestle her blade back. And she struck blow after blow after blow on the unversed. Finally, it crumpled against the ground. With a mighty stroke of her blade, Aqua defeated the unversed, and was immediately blasted with confetti and munny. Shaking off the sparkles, Aqua faced the little girl.

Terrified, the poor thing screamed, "EEEEK! Don't hurt me!" She was a petite, brown-haired girl, whose curly hair was pulled into two pigtails. She wore a bright red pinafore over a white dress, and white bloomers. She wore white ankle socks and black mary jane shoes.

"Shh, it's okay. I'm here to help." Aqua knelt down beside the girl. "Are you alright?"

The girl shook her head and pointed to her badly scraped left knee. "I was running and I fell."

"I'll heal that right up." Aqua waved her keyblade, casting a healing spell. "See? All better."

The little girl nodded, and stood up. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. You should hurry home, okay?"

The little girl's lips began to tremble. Tears gathered in her eyes. "I'm lost!" she cried.

So Aqua ended up carrying the little girl, piggy-back style, up and down the streets of the city. "Do you see your home yet?" Aqua asked.

"Nope." She seemed nonchalant about the situation, eagerly sightseeing the city from atop Aqua's back. A little frustrated, Aqua took out her phone to check whether Ven or Terra had called her. Nope. She sent Ven another text. _Are you okay?_ _Just let me know that you're safe._ Then she asked the girl, "Do you know what your house looks like? What is it close to?"

"It's a blue house next to the castle," she answered. There were a lot of blue houses, and this entire area was near the castle. Aqua sighed. The girl looked no older than six years old, so Aqua wondered how she got separated from her family in the first place. "What happened? How did you get lost?"

"I was with Mama and I saw a butterfly, so I chased it. Then that monster started chasing me."

"Where was Mama when you last saw her?"

"She was having tea with Miss Deetay."

"Do you remember where?"

"At the tea shop."

Again, Aqua sighed. "Well just keep on the lookout for Mama, okay?"

The girl nodded. "Okay. Thank you Miss… um… what's your name?"

"I'm Aqua. What's your name?"

"Nia."

"Nia? That's a cute name."

"Thank you."

Aqua continued her trek along the streets. She hoped that someone would recognize the girl, but everyone seemed too busy to notice. "Maybe I should find a police station?" Aqua wondered.

"Don't take me to the police!" Nia exclaimed. "Mama will be angry!"

"Why would your mother be angry?"

"Because if I go to the police, then I'm a criminal."

Aqua chuckled. "That's not true. Mama probably went to the police to try to find you."

"Really?"

Aqua nodded. Nia tightened her arms around Aqua's shoulders. "Okay. Then let's go."

Thus, Aqua took Nia to the nearest police station and waited beside the girl, as she texted Ven. _Ven please. I'm not angry. I promise._ Another minute passed. _At least text me. I'm worried._

A few more minutes passed. Nia sat patiently kicking her legs back and forth. "What if Mama never finds me?" she asked.

"She'll find you," Aqua insisted. "Mommies always find their children."

Nia nodded. At that moment, Aqua's phone pinged. Ven had finally replied. _I'm fine Aqua._ The flood of relief made her lean back and look up at the ceiling. "Thank God," she mumbled as she replied, _Where are you? I'll come get you._

"Mama!" Nia shouted, jumping up from her seat and running toward two women who had entered the station.

"Nia!" Nia's mother picked her up and swung her around. "Oh my dear, where did you go?"

"I got lost! I'm sorry!"

"I'm just glad that you're safe!" Nia's mother cuddled her.

"This is Miss Aqua," Nia said, pointing to her. "She helped me."

Aqua waved hello to Nia's Mother…

And then she met eyes with her own mother. "Mom?!" Aqua exclaimed.

"Aqua?!" Aqua's mother exclaimed.

"Mom?" Nia repeated. "Miss Deetay is Miss Aqua's Mom?"

Nia's mother corrected the little girl. "This is Miss _D'Vitae_ , Nia. One of our family's business partners." She then said to Aqua's mother, "I didn't know you had a child of your own Trisha."

Aqua's mother laughed and said, "I don't have any children. This is just a girl I used to know."

Aqua's eyes widened and her heart dropped. "Wow…" was all she could say.

"Oh, I see," said Nia's mother, who was a bit confused. "Um, well, thank you, Aqua, for helping me find my darling Nia. I can't thank you enough. Is there anything I can do to show my appreciation?"

"It was no problem, really," said Aqua, standing up, and practically running out of the police station. "Goodbye!"

Aqua ran away, down the street, until she was out of breath. She then leaned against a building. She stared up at the clouds above. Then she stared at her cellphone.

No reply from Ven.

With a huge sigh, she texted him, _Please stay safe and call me if you need anything._ And she told herself, "Focus on the task at hand. Defeat unversed. Find Terra. Find Master Xehanort." She began walking along the streets.

She found unversed hiding in corners, lurking in alleys and running amok in the streets. The most common ones that she saw were floods, dark blue creatures with triangular shaped heads and jagged extremities that sunk into the shadows when she tried to strike them.

She also fought unversed that took interesting forms. There was one that was shaped like a 6-foot-tall cellphone. It attacked by blasting ringtones, blinding her with the flash from the camera, and then body slamming her. She defeated it by cracking its screen, and it promptly exploded into munny and sparkles.

Another interesting one was an unversed that was shaped like a 10-foot-tall trophy. It attacked by shooting multi-colored orbs at her. She was able to get close enough to attack by putting up her barrier shield and reflecting the orbs back at it.

There were many more. Yet the most interesting one that she fought was an unversed that looked strikingly similar to Ven's Mizz Piggy doll. However, instead of pink skin and blonde hair, the doll was dark blue and red-headed. The gentle embroidered eyes of Ven's doll were nothing like the beady, yellow googly-eyes of this monstrosity. It had appeared out of nowhere, and was taller than the buildings in the city. Townsfolk screamed and ran for their lives.

Aqua charged at Unversed Mizz Piggy, and slashed at it with her keyblade. The doll smacked Aqua away with unexpected strength. Aqua's body smashed against a building and tumbled to the ground. She felt the breath sucked out of her lungs, and her sight stopped working. Before she knew it, she was knocked out. Unversed Mizz Piggy then marched through the winding streets, up toward the Castle of Dreams.

Aqua regained consciousness about a minute later, and stood up, ready to keep fighting. Although she was a little unsteady at first, she ran after the unversed. She channeled her magic energy into her keyblade to form an extremely long sword of light. She jumped into the air and slashed it down on Unversed Mizz Piggy, cutting it into half.

That should have ended it. But it didn't. The two halves of the unversed each threw a punch at Aqua. She blocked with a barrier, but she was still thrown across the street. Panting, she leaned against a wall. Unfortunately, her knees buckled and she slumped downward.

Not good. She'd used up too much energy—both magic and stamina. She didn't even have enough magic to heal herself. And she was pretty sure that she had a concussion. Yet, she stood up and willed herself to keep going. "I've got to protect the people here," she told herself. "I've got to defeat this thing. I'll never give up, because I'm a keyblade master. And I'm going to use this power to do good in the worlds." She took a step forward. "Because if there's one thing that I learned from my late father—may his departed soul rest in peace—it's to do everything I do with love and passion. And if there's one thing that I'm passionate about, it's protecting those that can't protect themselves!"

She once again focused all of her strength into her keyblade. Her lightblade quadrupled in size. She ran toward Unversed Mizz Piggy and jumped into the air. "Graaaaah!" she shouted as she slashed the doll into a million tiny pieces.

Poof! It exploded into a cloud of confetti and a shower of munny.

And Aqua fell to her knees, and then face down on the ground, panting heavily. "I'm glad Ven didn't see that," she mumbled. "He loves that doll." She closed her eyes. She was about to pass out.

"Heal," said a familiar voice.

Instantly, Aqua's entire body felt relieved. Her concussion was cured, her stamina returned and her magic was replenished. Sitting up, she saw the last person she expected to see. A blonde woman, wearing a navy-blue skirt-suit, holding a Stormfall keyblade in the same hand that she wore her sapphire-studded wedding band. "Mom?"

"Aqua," replied Trisha D'Vitae.

"Did you heal me?"

"Don't ask stupid questions, Sweetie."

"Why? Why did you heal me?"

"Didn't I just say not to ask stupid questions? You never were good at listening."

Aqua stood up. "T-thank you."

"You're welcome. But next time, don't be so stupid. You've been fighting these monster things all day. You were weak, injured, and running out of magic. Why did you think you could fight that huge one all by yourself?"

"W-were you following me?"

Trisha rolled her eyes. With a wave of her hand, she dismissed her keyblade, turned around, and walked away. Aqua chased after her, saying, "Wait, Mom, I want to talk to you!"

The click-clack of the woman's heels speed up as she marched away faster.

"Wait! Mom! I have so much to tell you!"

Trisha marched even faster.

"Stop ignoring me!" screamed Aqua. "Don't run away! Don't run away from me!"

Trisha turned around and snapped, "What the fuck do you want?"

Aqua fell silent. The older woman shook her head so swiftly that her blonde ringlets bounced. "So you're not going to say anything? You've ruined my day, and yet, now that I decide to listen, you have nothing to say?"

"Mom…" Aqua mumbled. "I… I'm sorry."

"What?"

"For running away. I'm sorry."

Trisha's hands went limp at her sides. "Y-you're sorry? Don't you think it's a little too late for that? It's been four years."

"I know. And I'm sorry for that too. I was fifteen. I was stubborn and dumb. And I broke your heart. I shouldn't have handled it that way. But I don't want you to hate me forever. I want to make amends. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry Mom."

Aqua's mother placed her hands on her hips and looked down at the cobblestone streets. "Wow…" She sucked her teeth. "Aqua, sweetie, it's too late for that." Reaching out, she placed both hands on Aqua's cheeks. "I chose my path and you chose yours. And I'll never forgive you for that."

Devastated. Aqua felt devastated. But not by those words. It was the look of deep regret on her mother's face that broke Aqua's heart. She grasped her mother's wrists and pulled the woman's hands away from her cheeks. "You don't mean that, do you Mom?"

"You can stop calling me that. As far as I'm concerned, you're not my daughter. You're an ugly girl that keeps popping in and out of my life."

"Why do you keep lying to yourself?"

"Don't ask stupid questions."

"So the first fifteen years of my life meant nothing to you?"

"They did." Trisha crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked up to the clouds above. She tapped her feet against the pavement. "I was happy. I was really happy back then." She smiled. "Your father, you, Rio, our company, everything was wonderful. And I was happy. And I'll never forget that happiness. But, it's gone now. I've ruined everything. I'm not a good person, Aqua. I hurt everyone that I really love. I don't want to hurt you or your brother anymore, so I don't want you or Rio in my life anymore. I think it's better that way. For all of us."

"How can that possibly be better? We're family."

"We're family?" She chuckled at that notion. "Your father's dead. You ran away from me. Rio hates me. What kind of family is that?"

"Rio doesn't hate you! Why do you think that?! Listen, Mom, we made mistakes. We were angry. But now we can fix them. We can make amends and move on."

"I'm not the type of woman who can forgive so easily, Aqua. Nor am I one who can stand to be forgiven. I've always been that way."

"But Mom!"

"Take care of Rio, okay? If you see him anytime soon, tell him that I'm proud of him."

"Mom!"

Trisha closed her eyes and smiled. "If you choose so, then one day you'll be a mother. Please be a better mother than I was."

"You were a good mother! You made mistakes but you were a good mother!"

Trisha's heels clicked as she began to walk away. "Don't lie to yourself."

"No! You should stop lying to yourself Mom! And I don't care if you tell me that you hate me a hundred thousand times. I'll always love you! And Rio will too! Even if the darkness in your heart causes you to forget our names and faces, even if it makes you forget who we are, it can't ever make you forget that we love you! And that will never change!"

Trisha stopped walking. "Really?" she asked.

Aqua nodded. "Yes. Stop denying the truth. We love you Mom. We love you so much."

Trisha turned slightly, just enough for Aqua to see a small smile and a single tear on her cheek. The woman chuckled to herself. "Then maybe it's true that deep in my heart, no matter what the clouds of darkness say, I love you both too." With those final words, she kept walking, until her shape disappeared around the corner.

"Mom…" Aqua mumbled. She bit her lower lip and blinked back tears.

In that moment of despair, her phone rang. She stared at the screen as it played the ringtone she had custom set for her older brother. She sniffled again, and wiped her face. "I can't talk to him right now. He can tell when I'm upset." So she put away her phone, and continued to walk along the winding road that wrapped around the mountain of the Castle of Dreams.


	56. Thank You Gift

Aqua wandered up and down the streets surrounding the Castle of Dreams, with her keyblade equipped, seeking out any last unversed to destroy. "Seems like I've taken care of all of them," she said. By now, the sun had set, and the moon and stars were beginning to twinkle. Yet again she checked her phone. It was around 8pm. No calls from Ven or Terra. She texted both of them a brief message. Then she wondered, "If Ven doesn't go home, where is he going to spend the night? Or maybe he went home already? And where is Terra?"

Out of the blue, Aqua heard someone shout, "Miss Aqua!" It was none other than Nia, the little girl that Aqua had saved earlier. She was leaning her entire torso out of the third floor window of a nearby house. "Miss Aqua! Hi!"

"Nia!" Aqua called out. "Don't do that! It's dangerous!"

From inside the house, Aqua faintly heard Nia's mother shout, "Nia! What are you doing?" So the little girl was pulled inside and the window shut. Promptly, the front door opened. Standing in the doorway was a young male butler, who bowed, and said, "Hello, Miss Aqua. Please, come inside."

So Aqua entered. The butler led her up a flight of stairs, to a parlor, where young Nia and her mother sat, having tea. He bowed and made his exit. Nia's mother patted the seat beside her. Aqua sat down and a maid poured a cup of tea for her.

"Please, do excuse my daughter," said Nia's mother. "She is quite a little fireball of energy. Caring for her is absolutely exhausting."

Nia argued, "Nuh-uh! I'm a good girl!"

"I didn't thank you properly, Miss Aqua, for bringing her back to me this afternoon."

Aqua laughed, and answered, "Oh, no need to thank me. I'm just doing what I think is right."

"Nonsense, my dear," Nia's mother insisted, "I must thank you. What should you want? Name anything. My husband and I are very rich. We can offer you gold or treasure."

"Really, Ma'am, I really don't need anything special."

Nia's mother pouted. "Well, I shall feel upset if I'm not allowed to thank you. I insist. If there is anything that you want, feel free to ask."

Aqua, her face flushing, shook her head. "I'm not a flashy or fancy girl. I don't know what to ask for."

"What about the ball?" Nia blurted out. "Are you going to the ball, Miss Aqua?"

"Oh, yes, the ball!" Nia's mother stood up. "Oh, I could have the tailors whip you up a fabulous outfit in no time." A snap of the woman's fingers summoned an army of women, equipped with scissors, tape measure, needles and thread.

Aqua hadn't been planning on going to the ball, but before she knew it, she was dragged away by the tailors, stripped down to her undergarments and measured. "Arms up, tummy in!" shouted a gruff old lady, as she wrapped the tape measure around Aqua's waist.

"Quite busty, isn't she?" asked a different lady, who measured Aqua's chest.

"Nice butt," commented one as she measured Aqua's hips.

And they set to work. Meanwhile, a separate group of maids pampered Aqua with a spa bath, painted her nails, and curled her hair.

Within the hour, Aqua was dressed in a glittering white, strapless ball gown with a sweetheart neckline. Her wrists were adorned with several silver and gold bracelets, in her ears were diamond studs, along her neck was a blue diamond necklace on a golden chain, and atop of her head was a tiara, embedded with pink, blue, white and yellow diamonds. On her feet were crystal stiletto heels.

"Miss Aqua is a princess!" shouted Nia.

Nia's mother nodded. "Oh, yes, she quite looks the part."

Aqua didn't know what to say. "Wow. I'm really, really, grateful."

With a clap of her hands, Nia's mother summoned several carriage drivers, and told them, "Please escort Aqua to the ball."

They bowed. "Yes Milady." And they led Aqua to a horse-drawn carriage. Up the hill they traveled, to the Castle of Dreams.

The moon was high in the sky, illuminating the rosebush lined walkway where the carriages dropped off the guests. There were hundreds of them, all gathered around the courtyard, chatting. However, when Aqua stepped out of the carriage, all went silent.

All eyes focused on her as she strolled into the castle. On the outside, Aqua was poised and dignified, with her head held high. But on the inside, she was thinking, _Oh God, I don't like all this attention. This is so embarrassing. This is just like my socialite days, before I ran away._

Luckily, when she entered into the main ballroom, she blended into the masses. Backing into a corner, she took out her cellphone and checked for any communication from Ven and Terra. She groaned. Still, nothing. "I wonder if I should call Master Eraqus," she said to herself.

So she did. He answered the phone on the fourth ring. "Hello?"

"Hi, Master, it's me, Aqua."

"Aqua, hello. Are you and Terra coming home soon? You don't need to fight unversed all night long."

"Actually, Terra split up from me, and I was calling to see if he already went home."

"Oh, I see. No, Terra isn't home yet."

"What about Ven?"

"Ven? Did Ven go along with you two as well?"

Aqua frowned. "You didn't notice that Ven wasn't home the entire day?"

No, he honestly hadn't. But, in Master Eraqus's defense, he had fallen asleep almost immediately after sending Aqua and Terra out on their mission. He had slept through the entire afternoon and evening, and perhaps would have slept through the entire night, if he hadn't been awoken by the sound of his cellphone ringing. But he wasn't about to admit that to her. "Of course I noticed that Ven wasn't home. However, I assumed that he went out with his friends."

Aqua knew Master Eraqus well enough to know that he was lying, but she didn't want to deal with his nonsense right now. "Okay. Well, that means Ven and Terra are off somewhere, doing who knows what."

"Are Terra and Ven together?"

Aqua shrugged. "I don't know."

"Well that isn't safe. But don't fret," he assured her. "Ven and Terra are both capable of taking care of themselves. I have faith that they will be fine."

Aqua needed to hear that. "Okay."

"And, Aqua, that means you've been traveling by yourself, correct? Are you alright?"

"Yes I'm fine."

"Come home and rest. I'll help you look for Ven and Terra tomorrow."

"I'll be fine, Master. And I would prefer if you stayed home and told me if Ven and Terra return."

"I suppose that makes sense. However, don't push yourself too hard, Aqua. Find a safe place to spend the night. Take care of yourself."

"I will."

"Everything is going to be alright Aqua. You are capable of finding them both and bringing them home safely. I'm sure that all will be well in the end."

"Okay. Thank you. Good night, Master."

"Good night."

She hung up, and complained, "He's so damn useless." Yet she smiled as she realized, "He was probably asleep all day. Anyway, maybe I should search this castle to see if Ven and Terra are here."

Therefore, Aqua wandered around the Castle. And she actually quite enjoyed herself. She ate some delicious refreshments at the banquet hall as the castle's clock tower tolled 10 o'clock. She then danced with a few random fellows in the ballroom until 11 o'clock. She chatted with some folk in the gathering room until half past eleven.

"Do tell me, what did you use to get that beautiful blue color in your hair?" asked a young woman, about Aqua's age.

"It's natural," Aqua replied. "I get it from my dad's side of the fam—"

She was interrupted by a violent crash that shook the ground of the castle. Several guests, fell over. Following that was moment of intense confusion. "An earthquake?" wondered the lady that Aqua had been talking too.

"Or something more sinister," Aqua said, summoning her keyblade. She kicked off her crystal high heels, and ran toward the source of the noise.


	57. I've Gone Mad

Around 8:30pm that same Sunday, Terra wandered along a dirt path. He heaved a massive sigh. "She said that she was turning sixteen… She's just a little older than Ven. I hope she'll be okay." He continued along the path, lost in his thoughts, until he stumbled upon a young, blonde woman, kneeling in the front yard of a manor, head down on a bench, sobbing. A nest of mice surrounded her, squeaking relentlessly. She wailed. "All I wanted to do was go to the ball!"

"Are you alright?" Terra asked.

Cinderella looked up, her eyes full of tears. The mice ran off and hid. Terra knelt down beside her and patted her back. "Are you okay?" he asked again.

She shook her head. "No." She gestured to her outfit. "I got all dolled up to go to the ball, and yet my stepmother refused to take me."

Terra took a good look at the young woman. She looked about his age, but she reminded him of Aqua. The girl's make up was smeared, running down her face. Her hair had fallen out from whatever type of updo she had styled it. The dress she wore was hideous. The girl looked like a hot mess, frankly. "Cheer up. You can still go."

"No I can't," she told Terra. "The castle is too far to walk. It's up a hill. Fastest way is by carriage and I don't have one."

"I can take you."

She shook her head. "Why, I don't even know you, Sir. Thanks for your offer, but I've already caused enough trouble for myself by accepting someone's help today." She wiped her face and stood up. "At least I have this dress. I'll treasure it forever." She curtseyed to him. "My name is Cinderella, by the way. What's yours?"

"Terra."

Cinderella giggled. "Terra? That's a girl's name."

"No it's not. It's a nickname. My full name is Dreterran."

"Dreterran? I like the sound of that. Nice to meet you." She offered her hand to him. He took it, brought it to his lips, and kissed it. She giggled again. "You sure know how to cheer a girl up, Terra." She smiled at him.

For some reason, this girl really reminded Terra of Aqua. So he said, "Well, Cindy, I cannot abandon a woman in need." As he spoke those words, he felt like a hypocrite. He had just abandoned a young woman in need _. But that was different,_ he assured himself. _They didn't want my help._

She pulled her hand away. "Cindy? Teehee." She placed that hand over her chest. "I like that." She sighed. "Okay. I should go inside and sleep."

"But what about the ball?"

Cinderella shrugged. "I guess I'm not going…" She turned away, heart-broken. "Why did I even want to go to the ball in the first place? Girls like me aren't meant to dance the night away…" As she began to head toward her house, an old lady materialized in front of her. Cinderella bumped into the old woman, who was wearing an oversized, one-piece, blue hooded robe. "Why, the ball is exactly for girls like you, Cinderella!" the old lady exclaimed.

Cinderella screamed, fell to her butt, and shouted, "Who are you?!"

"Oh dear, did I startle you?" The lady waved around a wand. "Sorry dear. I'm spread thin tonight. So many men and women are wishing to go to the ball. I'm running from place to place, and I must make sure that all their dreams come true!"

"Who are you?" repeated the frightened girl.

"I'm your fairy godmother, of course! I grant your wildest dreams!"

"Fairy Godmother?" Cinderella placed her hands on her cheeks. "I've gone mad." She turned to Terra. "Have I gone mad?"

Terra shook his head. "I see her too."

"Oh, I'm very real," said Fairy Godmother. She began to dance around, waving her wand, casting sparkles into the air. "Adda kazuu and skippity doo and bibbidi bopitty boo," Fairy Godmother sang. "Something dadada and what do you get? Bibbidi bopitty boo!" She pointed the wand to a pumpkin patch. A blast of magic converted one of the orange gourds into a brilliant white carriage.

"My heavens!" Cinderella exclaimed at the same time that Terra said, "Holy shit!"

But Fairy Godmother wasn't finished. She pointed her wand at four of the mice that where hiding in a nearby bush. "Look at the mice, yes that should suffice, bibbidi bopitty boo. With magic, not curses, they turn into horses, bibbidi bopitty boo." And, of course, the mice transformed into four white steeds.

Cinderella screamed, "Gus! Jaq! Katelyn! Roxy! What did you do to them?"

"No worries Cinderella, the spell only lasts until midnight. Trust me." Fairy Godmother then pointed to Cinderella and sang, "Oh beautiful girl, just give me a twirl, and bibbidi bopitty boo," she paused. Cinderella took the hint and began to twirl around. With a wave of the wand and a flash of magic, Cinderella was suddenly dressed in a pale blue ball gown. Her hair and make-up were perfect. She wore blue pearls as earrings and on her feet were dainty glass slippers.

"Isn't it lovely?" Fairy Godmother exclaimed.

Cindy observed her reflection in a fountain in her front yard. "Why, yes!" A smile spread across her face. "Yes I look absolutely stunning." She touched her cheeks and patted her hair. "I look like a princess! This is wonderful! Oh! Oh, but—and I don't mean to sound ungrateful—but what about the dress my friends made for me?"

"Everything will return to normal come midnight, dear! No worries." She then pointed her wand to Terra and sang, "A tuxedo too for this young man, her beau, bibbidi bopitty, boo!"

Terra suddenly was wearing a pale blue tuxedo. His hair was brushed back all princely, and he was wearing white gloves. He smelled of fresh linen and roses. "Whoa," he exclaimed.

Cinderella, her cheeks flushing red, shook her head. "Oh no, Miss, he's not my boyfriend."

Fairy Godmother eyed Terra. With a flirtatious wink, she asked, "Why not?"

"Why I barely know him! We literally just met!"

"Well then get to know each other tonight. He shall escort you to the ball."

"I don't quite think it's safe to go to the ball with a stranger!"

Fairy Godmother once again eyed Terra. "He seems fine to me. A young man with a good heart."

Terra repeated, "A good heart?"

"Maybe a little bit of a pervert," Fairy Godmother added, upon closer inspection.

Terra's cheeks colored and he scratched the back of his head. "Geez Grandma, don't say that…"

"I'm not a grandma, I'm Fairy Godmother!" She laughed a hearty laugh. "Listen closely you two. The spell wears off at midnight, give or take five to thirty minutes. Sometime after the final stroke of twelve, everything will revert to normal. So do return home before midnight."

Cindy and Terra exchanged glances, unsure of what to say.

"Alright Dears, I bid you both adieu!" Fairy Godmother spread out her hands in a grand gesture, and disappeared.

Cinderella, stupefied, stood still. Then she looked at her dress. She grabbed the skirt and twirled around. "Wow, I've actually gone mad… But I suppose I should enjoy this moment of insanity, then? Right?" She faced Terra. "Can I reconsider your offer, Terra? To escort me to the ball?"

Her eyes were sparkling with eager delight. Terra smiled. How could he say no? "Of course, Cinderella." He led her into the carriage. Then he hopped into the driver's seat, grabbed the horses' reins and whipped them. "I don't know where I'm going," Terra told her as the horses started to trot.

Cinderella peeked her head out of the carriage window, pointed toward the skyscraping castle in the distance, and said, "Just follow the road until you reach the castle!"

And they set off.

At first it was a quiet, steady ride. The two of them listened to the rhythmic sound of the horses clip-clop footstep and the creak of the carriages wheels. "So, tell me about yourself," Cinderella said, leaning out of the carriage window.

"What do you want to know?"

"What were you doing before you got dragged into this situation with me?"

Terra lowered his eyes and sighed. "Nothing good."

"Is that so? Were you not planning to go to the ball?"

He shrugged. "Not really."

"Oh no did I drag you into this? I apologize! But I assure you, it'll be fun. There will be food and music and—my goodness!" she suddenly exclaimed, while pointing to something behind of them. "Do you see that? It's following us!"

Terra turned his head to see another carriage chasing them. In short, it looked like an angry jack-o-lantern had grown wheels and become a carriage. Pulling it were two horses whose manes were flaming with black flames. Whipping the reins was an unversed skeleton, dressed like a carriage driver.

"Where the hell do these unversed come from?" Terra shouted as he stood up and summoned his keyblade. "Hey Cindy, I need you to grab the reins really quick."

"Um… sure?" she said. She climbed out of the door and around to the front of the carriage. She whipped the reins of her horses as Terra stood atop of the carriage, blasting their pursuers with fire magic—which, he realized in retrospect, wasn't a great idea. The flaming horses swallowed up the magic and spat it back with twice the intensity.

"EEEK!" Cinderella screamed as she guided her horses out of the way. Terra decided to take a more physical approach. He jumped and landed on top of the pumpkin carriage. He bashed his keyblade against it. He thrust his keyblade downward, summoning a spire of rock that tore through the carriage, stopping it in its tracks. Turning, he rammed his keyblade through the head of the unversed carriage driver. Both it and the carriage burst into confetti and munny. The flaming horses, now free, continued to chase after Cinderella.

Terra dashed after the horses, struck both of them with an uppercut and then smashed them on the ground. POOF! Confetti and munny.

Cinderella guided her carriage to a halt, so that Terra could catch up with her. He sat beside her and asked, "You okay?"

"What just happened?"

"Long story short: monsters."

She was so terrified that she started laughing. "Monsters? Oh dear, what a night this is!" She whipped the reins of the horses. "But we didn't survive a monster attack to just sit here and panic, now did we? Let's continue on to the ball!"


	58. Prince Chocolate

There was a burnt, gaping hole in their carriage, and that attracted a lot of attention when they pulled up to the ball. But no one asked any questions as Terra and Cindy walked arm in arm through the courtyard and into the grand ballroom. Cinderella was cracking up with laughter. "Did you see how everyone was looking at us?"

Terra too laughed. "Yes. They must be so confused."

"Let them be. Teeheehehe. Teehehehehe!" She had to cover her mouth to stifle her giggles. "I really have lost my mind haven't I?"

"Shall we dance, Cinderella?" Terra said, outstretching his hand to her.

"Why yes, of course."

He placed a hand on her waist. She rested her hand on his shoulder. Their other hands interlaced. And they twirled together to the music of the orchestra. And Terra actually had fun. They spent about an hour in each other's arms, waltzing. At a point Cinderella laid her head against Terra's and whispered, "I'm so happy. It's a dream come true. Thank you Terra."

"You're welcome."

"Perhaps I'm just saying this because I've been through an emotional rollercoaster and saw my life flash before my eyes today, but I'm really happy I met you. Like, really, really happy. I don't want to forget you, so let's be friends."

He nodded. "Of course."

A few minutes later, the music stopped. A royal fanfare of trumpets rang out. All of the couples in the ballroom stopped dancing and looked around. A middle-aged royal-looking man, who seemed very uptight, and who stood with his chest puffed out and his butt squeezed tight (as if he was holding in a massive fart) cleared his throat and adjusted the monocle over his right eye. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said in a flamboyant voice, "I, Grand Duke Licorice, have the honor to present to you, the most eligible bachelor in the land, the most charming, handsome, educated, kind-hearted and athletic young man in the kingdom, Prince Ferrero Rocher Lindt Ghrideli Godiva Cadbury the Third!"

A strapping young man with slicked-back, charcoal brown hair, wearing a golden royal jacket decorated in tassels and shiny buttons, and mahogany red pants, walked into the ballroom and bowed. "Thank you for the kind introduction, Grand Duke. To all my guests here tonight and to all the citizens of this wonderful kingdom, welcome to the annual Ball at the Castle of Dreams. On behalf of my parents, the King and Queen, I wish you all a fantastic evening full of revelry."

A polite round of applause followed his speech. The music began to play again. "Why is his name so long?" Terra asked. But Cindy wasn't listening, because she was gazing at the prince dreamily. Out of chance, the prince happened to glance her way, and the two locked onto each other. Cinderella's jaw dropped slightly. She couldn't stop staring. That is, until Terra touched her shoulder. "Cinderella?"

"Hmm?" she said, breaking out of her trance. "Yes, sorry, what was that?"

"You seemed a little spaced out right then."

"Was I?" She glanced at the Prince again. He was still staring at her. She blushed. "Maybe I was. Shall we keep dancing?" She placed her hand in Terra's hand. They started to sway to the music. But they were interrupted when someone grabbed Terra's shoulder. It was the Prince.

"May I be so rude as to interrupt this dance?" he asked.

"Uh…" Terra didn't know what to say. So he looked to Cinderella. Her entire face had turned red. Her eyes were sparkling with glee. Terra nodded. He put Cinderella's hand into the Prince's hand. "Sure." Cinderella thanked Terra with her eyes, as the Prince danced with her. Terra sighed, and stood off to the corner. "Well there goes my date… Actually, what am I doing here? I'm supposed to be fighting unversed and looking for Master Xehanort, not having a good time."

But he remained there, leaning against the wall, watching Cinderella dance with the Prince. He didn't feel hurt, no. He didn't even know the girl. But there was some sort of negative emotion tugging at his heart strings. Perhaps it was the way that she smiled at the prince, or the way that the prince seemed lost in her eyes. "Love at first sight," he muttered, frowning.

The two seemed so drawn to each other. Their movements on the dancefloor synced together. It was as if they were the only two people in the room, perhaps even in the world. Nothing or no one else mattered to them in that moment. "Those two just met, yet they're looking at each other as if they've been in love for years…" Terra thought aloud. He imagined being in the prince's shoes, with Aqua instead of Cindy. He closed his eyes and thought of the first time that he ever met Aqua.

He had been standing next to her that day when Master Eraqus was first lecturing them about being a keyblade master. But, he hadn't really been paying attention to her, or anyone else, at first. His mind had been so preoccupied with earning the chance to study under a keyblade master. He was thrilled to be in the Land of Departure. He was thrilled to be chasing his dream. He had practiced how he would introduce himself, and was preparing to leave a great first impression on Master Eraqus.

Then she spoke. "I'm Aqua. I'm fifteen." He happened to take a good look at her. She was radiant. There was just something about her that was so exquisitely beautiful that his mind went blank. He immediately fell in love. And he completely lost his social filter. Before he even knew it, he had said, "Hot damn, Aqua!" And he had looked like an idiot.

On top of that, he had creeped her out. He could tell from her body language. She shrunk back, her shoulders tense. Her facial expression was one of annoyance, disgust, and fear. He had frightened her. After all, Terra was a tall, muscular guy, and had pretty much just catcalled her. She tried to act brave to hide her discomfort. "Do you like what you see, creep?" she asked in a voice dripping with sarcasm.

Terra immediately wanted to salvage the situation. He remembered some advice that his father had once told him. Women love to laugh. So Terra took a risk and decided to make an even bigger fool of himself. "Like it? Whoa, girl, take me to McRonalds cuz ba-duh-duh-duh-duh, I'm loving it." He hoped that would work. He hoped that he would come off as funny, and not make the situation even worse.

Luckily, she laughed. "Wow, that was the worst pick up line I have ever heard in my life!" And she relaxed. She must have forgiven him for the initial stupid outburst, because she spent the rest of the day hanging out with him. And they soon became close friends. Just friends. Aqua made sure to tell him that on several occasions.

And that made sense. After all, she was a fifteen-year-old runaway. She needed to figure herself out before she started dating anyone. Then there was that time that he had kissed her in the kitchen. She didn't quite know how to respond to that. He felt so bad for upsetting her that he had to leave her for a few days to clear his head. He was also worried that Aqua would never reciprocate the feelings that he had for her. He couldn't bear it if the girl he was so head-over-heels in love with rejected him. So he was thrilled when she told him that she simply needed more time to process her emotions.

As more time passed, Terra watched Aqua grow into an amazing young woman. And each day he fell more and more in love with her. He loved the way she worked hard at her part-time job, the way she mothered Ven, the way she studied diligently to earn her high-school diploma, and the way she trained vigorously to become a keyblade master.

After four long years, the love that he had felt when he first met her had grown exponentially. So why did he hurt her during the Mark of Mastery exam? Why was he ignoring her calls? Why was he acting like this? "I think I'm the one who's gone mad," he mumbled. "I should call her." So he reached for his phone. He saw that she had called him several times that day. She had also texted him several times: _Terra stop ignoring me._

 _Call me back please?_

 _Ven left home to look for you. I have no idea where he is._

"Ven left home?" Terra mumbled. Right as he was about to return Aqua's call, Terra noticed several unversed appear on an indoor balcony on the opposite end of the ballroom. They were the most common type that he had encountered, the jagged Floods that could slink into the shadows and move quickly from place to place. He thought it wiser to defeat them before they caused any harm to the congregation of guests.

Summoning his keyblade into his hand, Terra looked for a quick way to reach the balcony. There wasn't an obvious staircase. And he would probably cause a scene if he took a running start and jumped. So he pushed past a few people and headed toward the main foyer. There, he found Archduke Licorice standing with that same chest-out-butt-clenched posture. "Hey, can you tell me how to get to the balcony up there," Terra asked, pointing his keyblade in that direction.

"Why, yes," answered the Archduke. "There's a backdoor just beyond the foyer."

"Thanks." Terra ran off.

Terra followed the archduke's directions and found a hallway filled with unversed. "Here we go again." He rushed through them all, poofing them into confetti and munny. Upon reaching the balcony, a ten-foot-tall unversed, dressed like a musical conductor, materialized in front of Terra. With a conductor's wand in hand, the unversed began to sway his body to the music of the Castle's orchestra. Several instruments materialized behind it, drums, violins, trumpets, and flutes. Together, they blasted Terra with colorful, musical-note-shaped light beam attacks. Terra was able to dodge, but the sound of the unversed's musical attacks was loud enough to startle the guests in the ballroom below. The festivities stopped as everyone looked upwards to see the monster.

Most of them assumed it was some sort of entertainment. They clapped, saying, "Oh, wonderful! A show!"

"A show?" mumbled the Prince. "We didn't plan a show."

Cinderella realized what was happening, shouted, "Terra!" and looked around nervously, unsure of what to do. Hastily, she decided that it was best to clear the area. She jumped up and down and shouted, "Everyone back away! Back away! He needs some space!"

The guests obeyed, which was good, because Terra smacked the unversed off of the balcony and onto the ground below. The floor shook so violently that the guests started to wonder, "What kind of show is this? This is frightening."

"Back away! Run! It isn't a show!" Cinderella yelled, waving her hands wildly. As she said that, the unversed's floating instruments let loose a flurry of musical notes, which crashed against the walls and support pillars of the castle. Some of the notes headed toward the crowd, and probably would have seriously hurt someone, if a magical barrier didn't suddenly appear.

The young lady creating the barrier was none other than Aqua. "Evacuate the area!" she demanded. "That's a real monster!"

Mass panic erupted as guests ran for their lives.

Terra, meanwhile, was still fighting the conductor and its instruments. He rushed toward a drum, and batted it at the conductor, before jumping in the air and bashing its head. Aqua and Cinderella focused on crowd control, making sure that the stampede of guests didn't get hurt by stray attacks. Soon the ballroom was empty, except for Cinderella and Aqua. Aqua, keyblade in hand, said, "Get to safety. I'll take care of this."

Cinderella hesitated, and then she heard the familiar poof sound of an unversed being defeated. Terra, panting, rested his keyblade across his shoulders. "That takes care of that." He turned around to see Cinderella tackle him in a hug. "Terra! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Terra!" Aqua shouted, approaching him and Cinderella. Terra's eyes widened a bit, and he gently pushed Cinderella aside. "Aqua? You're here too?"

She nodded. "When did you get here? What are you doing? Why haven't you been answering your phone?"

"Uh…" He was saved by the bell—or rather, the first stroke of midnight. Cinderella exclaimed, "Oh my heavens!" She snatched Terra's hand. "Midnight! We must run!" Although she was a thin young lady, she pulled Terra away at lightning speed. Confused, Aqua simply watched them go.

Terra and Cinderella pushed past the crowd of guests, who cheered for Terra, saying, "Our hero! You saved us from the monster!"

Prince Ferrero Rocher Lindt Ghrideli Godiva Cadbury the Third and Archduke Licorice jumped in front of them to say, "Why, thank you! Thank you both! You have saved our ball!"

Cinderella impatiently nodded. "You are so very welcome, but we must hurry off—"

The Archduke shook Terra's hand. "Why, we haven't had an outbreak of monsters in years! The history books say it was the summer of '64 the last time it happened!"

"We really MUST be off," Cindy insisted, attempting to run away. But Terra was curious, so he stood his ground and asked, "Why do you think it started?"

"Well, I've spoken to several guests today, and many of them have mentioned that it all started this morning after a strange boy wearing a black bodysuit and a black mask paraded through the street."

"A masked boy?"

"Yes. Some people claim the monsters sprouted right from his footsteps."

Cinderella insisted, "Terra!"

"Fine, let's go." He allowed her to drag him down the hallway, towards the castle's grand entrance. However, the prince followed them. "Wait, wait," he shouted, rushing to catch up. "Wait, young Miss, why run off? The night is still young."

"I really should go," she told him.

"But our dance was interrupted. At least let us finish that."

"Perhaps next time!"

"When is next time?"

"Um, next ball!"

"A year from now? No way!"

"Well I can't—Eeek!"

Cinderella stumbled down the stairs. Terra caught her. "You okay?" he asked. She nodded, kicked off her shoes and said, "Hurry, hurry." She ran barefoot to their carriage and jumped inside. He followed.

"Wait!" the prince shouted. "Wait!" he picked up her shoes. "Wait!"

Terra said, "Cindy, he looks desperate."

"Terra the spell is going to run out any second now! Drive!"

He sighed and whipped the reins. The horses neighed and galloped away.

Distraught, the prince held her shoes in the air and shouted, "Wait! Your shoes! Miss! Miss! Come back!"

Their carriage raced down the winding streets, away from the city, and back toward Cinderella's house. As they parked in the yard of Cinderella's woodside manor, the spell finally broke. With a flash of light, her carriage became a pumpkin. Her noble steeds became her mice friends. Her ball gown became her "homemade" dress. Terra's tuxedo returned to his normal clothing.

"We made it!" Cinderella exclaimed. Terra checked his phone. It was 12:33am. He rolled his eyes. "Midnight give or take half an hour," he said.

"I just wanted to make absolutely sure that I didn't return to this while at the ball." She gestured to her clothing and hair.

"You still look fine," Terra lied.

She shook her head. "I know that you are trying to be nice, but you don't need to be." She sat down on a stone bench in her front yard. "I saw the other women at the ball. Stepmother was right to leave me here. I couldn't have gone looking like this." She gripped the fabric of her dress. "I still love it, though. I love it because my friends so worked hard to make it for me. I'll wear it around the house. Just not to a ball."

Terra sat down beside her. "That sucks."

"Yeah. It's life. All is well. I was able to go to the ball. I danced with the prince."

"You seemed to really like that prince," Terra said, nudging her with his elbow. She nudged him back. "He was so attractive! But, not just in a physical way—I mean, of course his body was handsome, but I mean there was something about his aura, his air about him, that just sucked me in." Her cheeks flushed. "Perhaps I shall see him again one day." She faced Terra, "By the way, who was that girl that you spoke to right before we left? I wish I didn't need to drag you away so rudely, but we really had to run."

"She's…" He paused. He sighed. He stood up. "I should be going."

Cinderella nodded. "Okay. Well it was nice to meet you, Terra. Thank you so much for escorting me to the ball. I had a wonderful time."

"You're welcome Cindy."

They waved their farewells as he walked away into the woods. There, he activated his armor, summoned his keyblade glider, and flew away.

Cinderella looked up into the night sky. She yawned. To her mice, she said, "Time for bed!" and made her way inside the house.


	59. Liar x Liar

"Oh my heavens!" exclaimed Terra's blonde friend, she took Terra's hand. "Midnight! We must run!" And together, they eloped. Aqua did not know who she was or what appointment she and Terra needed to keep at midnight, but since it seemed like Terra still didn't want to talk to her, she did not bother to stop them.

Aqua crossed her arms in front of her chest and wandered around the Castle, thinking about the situation. Terra had been fighting an unversed, so that means he was heeding Master's orders. That meant Terra hadn't given in to the darkness, and that meant Terra was a good guy, right? She nodded. _Of course Terra is a good guy. So something must have made him go berserk during the Mark of Mastery Exam._ _But what? And what if it happens again? Was it my fault? Is that why he's ignoring me? But what could I have done?_

Although recalling the events of the battle was upsetting, she tried to remember the exact moment when she had noticed something fishy about his behavior. "What was different about that day?" she asked herself aloud. "Master Xehanort was there…" She furrowed her eyebrows. "And suddenly all these unversed pop up after he leaves…" She shook her head. _No, I shouldn't suspect one of Master's old friends. Master wouldn't allow anyone who could be dangerous to watch our mastery exam. Besides, what could Xehanort have possibly done to Terra? It's just coincidence. Or maybe it isn't? I have a weird feeling about all of this. I should leave this world and search for more clues._

She was so lost in her thoughts, that she wasn't watching where she was walking. And she happened to bump into none other than Prince Ferrero Rocher Lindt Ghrideli Godiva Cadbury the Third. Glancing up, she said, "Sorry, pardon me."

"It's you!" the prince shouted, grabbing Aqua by the waist and pulling her close. "You came back!"

She locked eyes with him. "Who?" was her curt reply.

"Oh! Oh, my, I've got the wrong girl." He released her, a faint blush creeping up on his cheeks. "I do apologize."

"No problem."

"Yes, there is a problem," the prince replied, dramatically clutching his hand to this chest. "I have fallen in love with a girl that I danced with tonight, but she ran away without even telling me her name. All I have to remember her are her shoes."

"You stole her shoes?"

"No, she dropped them as she ran away."

"Why was she running away from you?" She raised an eyebrow at the prince.

"I wasn't chasing her, I assure you. She ran off in a hurry because, well, I don't quite know. As she ran, she kicked off her shoes and here we are, in this situation."

Aqua inspected the glass slippers. "She could have twisted her ankles if she ran in those. I would have taken them off too. Actually, I did the same thing with my shoes," she slightly lifted her dress to show the prince her bare toes.

"Wait…" He looked at the shoes in his hands. Then he looked at Aqua. "Are you sure you're not my woman?"

Aqua nodded. "I think I would know if I was the girl you fell in love with."

"Just to make sure, can you try these shoes?"

Aqua shook her head. "No." She showed him her own crystal shoes. "Look, these are mine." And she wore them. "See?"

"That gives me an idea! I'll send my guards to search far and wide for the girl whose feet fit into these shoes!"

"Wait, wait, wait, lover boy. Are you serious?"

He nodded.

"So you just met a girl tonight, and you have fallen so madly in love with her that you are going to look for her?"

"Yes. She's the girl of my dreams."

"Are you sure?"

"It sounds ridiculous but I assure you that I'm serious. I am serious and I shall prove it! I shall send my guards to go find her!" He grabbed Aqua's hand. "And you must help me!"

"Why?"

"Because I am asking nicely. Please? Pretty, pretty please?"

That is how Aqua found herself sitting in a carriage, escorted three castle guards. She carried the left shoe in a basket, covered by pillows. The Archduke had taken the right shoe and, along with three castle guards of his own, embarked in the opposite direction to find the girl that the prince was smitten with.

"I cannot believe I'm doing this," Aqua complained. But she was doing it, perhaps because she was curious as to what kind of girl had captured the Prince's heart.

She and the guards went door-to-door to the houses closest to the Castle, but almost no one was home. And the ones that were home couldn't fit their foot into the shoe. So Aqua and her companions continued their search down the mountain.

Around 1am, Cinderella's stepmother, Madame Tremaine, and her stepsisters Drizella and Anastasia arrived home to their manor in the woods. "What a nightmare!" exclaimed the red-headed Anastasia. "A complete, utter, nightmare! Why, a monster at the ball? How terrifying!"

"But Sis, did you catch a glimpse of that hero fighting it?" Drizella shouted. "I swear his muscles were about to rip the seams of his clothing! Oh dear, _what I would do_ to just speak to him!"

Anastasia laughed.

Lady Tremaine hushed her daughter. "Now Drizella, don't be crass."

"But Mother, that man was _sexy_."

Anastasia laughed.

"Off to your rooms! The both of you!" She watched her daughters run upstairs. "Dear me, what am I going to do with these girls?" She sat down on the couch and touched her forehead. "Oh what a headache. I need an aspirin. Cinderella! Cinderella, come down here!"

Cinderella, who hadn't yet fallen asleep, couldn't ignore her stepmother's calls. So she hurried down the stairs. "Yes Stepmother?"

"Are you still awake?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I was up."

"Doing what?"

"Dreaming about the ball."

"I see you're still wearing that filthy dress."

"I decided to sleep in it."

"Interesting. Well fetch me an aspirin dear. You would not believe the night we had at the ball."

"Perhaps I would," she smugly replied as she did what she was told. Her stepmother took the medicine and asked, "What do you mean by that?"

"Nothing."

"Really?" the woman glared at her. "You seem rather chipper for a girl who has done nothing all night."

A knock on the front door interrupted their conversation. Cinderella, eager to avoid more questions, answered it. Standing on the front porch, along with three castle guards, was Aqua. Cinderella, recognizing her face, simply stared at her. Aqua, recognizing her face, stared at Cinderella. Stepmother asked, "Who is it?"

"Castle guards," replied Cindy.

Lady Tremaine rushed to the door. "Oh dear, did Drizella steal something from the castle?"

Aqua clarified, "No, no. No one is in trouble. We're here on royal business. You see, Prince Ferrero Rocher Lindt Ghrideli Godiva Cadbury the Third is seeking the young woman whose foot can fit into this shoe." She showed it to them. "She left the ball in a hurry and dropped it. He wishes to summon her back to the castle immediately."

Cinderella's eyes widened. "Oh dear."

Aqua said, "You look familiar."

"Do I?" Cindy asked, backing away.

"Have we met before?"

"No."

"Yes! You were just at the ball. Aren't you Terra's friend?"

The way Cinderella shrunk back and laughed nervously confirmed Aqua's suspicions, even though the former lied, "What? No, I've been home all night." Lady Tremaine didn't believe Cindy either. She exclaimed, "You went to the ball? Against my orders? Dressed like that?!"

"I… well I… It's not…" Cinderella fumbled over her words.

Aqua realized that she may be causing more harm than good, so she jumped to Cinderella's defense. "Actually, maybe I'm wrong. The lady I saw was wearing a really pretty blue ball gown. I didn't quite catch her face, so I could be wrong."

Cinderella nodded. "She _is_ wrong, because I've been home all night."

"Really? Then of course you wouldn't mind trying on the slipper, Cinderella?"

"Um…" Cinderella looked so guilty. "Well why would I need to try it on? I've been home, so there isn't any point in doing it. It could very well be Anastasia or Drizella's shoe. It looks very similar to what they were wearing. Glass slippers very much in style this season. I'll fetch them." She hurried up the stairs.

A soldier standing behind Aqua said, "No matter what that young woman says, we will need her to try on the shoe. The prince will be upset if we were skipping maidens." The other two nodded. Aqua agreed, "Of course. It would be annoying if the Prince's true love is the one girl we skip."

Lady Tremaine nearly fell over. "Prince's true love?" she repeated

Aqua nodded. "He claims he fell in love with the girl who was wearing this slipper."

"Then it must have been my one of my dear daughters! I'll go fetch them. In the meantime, have a seat, relax, enjoy my humble abode." She leaped up the stairs three at a time, and caught Cinderella right as the young woman was about to knock on her stepsister's doors. Lady Tremaine seized her shoulders and demanded, "Tell me the truth! Were you at the ball? And is that your slipper?"

Cinderella shook her head.

"Liar! Liar! How did you do it? How did you get to the ball?"

"It wasn't me or my slipper! How could it be my slipper? The spell was supposed to wear off at midnight!"

"What spell?"

Clasping her hands over her mouth, Cinderella backed away. "Nothing. Nothing."

Furiously, Lady Tremaine shoved Cinderella into a broom closet and locked the door with a key that she kept in a necklace. "You lying little bitch! You'll stay there until you tell me the truth!"

Cindy burst into tears. All this racket startled the two younger girls, who emerged from their rooms, saying, "What is going on?"

"Hurry downstairs! There are castle guards waiting!"

Drizella gasped. "I've been caught! It was only a golden spoon! I didn't think anyone would notice!"

"No you imbecile, they are searching for the prince's true love! Now get downstairs and try on that glass slipper!"

Anastasia and Drizella exchanged glances. "Mother have you taken too much aspirin?" asked the former. Lady Tremaine practically pushed them down the stairs. To Aqua and the guards, the woman said, "Cinderella insists that she didn't go to the ball and won't try on the slipper. But my daughters were there and I think they both danced with the prince."

The two girls were dreadfully confused. But they went along with the lie.

"Alright," said Aqua. First up, Anastasia. The red-head's feet were obviously too long for the shoes. Yet she tried her best to squeeze her toes inside. "Look, it fits!" she declared. Aqua didn't think so.

Drizella's feet were too wide. "I guess it's not me then," she said, yawning, as she half-heartedly tried to fit it in. "Can I go to sleep now?"

Lady Tremaine rolled her eyes. "It fit you this evening! Try harder!"

"Mother has lost her marbles," Drizella whispered.

Aqua held the shoe and said, "Alright, we'll need to test it on your last daughter."

The old woman scoffed. "No need."

"Well, yes we need to."

"Well no, you aren't going to. So you can excuse yourself from this house."

Aqua looked to the castle guards. They shrugged. One said, "Well if the girl insists that she didn't go to the ball, then I guess there really is no need."

But Aqua was pretty sure that Cinderella was the girl that she had seen with Terra at the ball. And she remembered that Terra and the girl had run off in a hurry. And it would make sense that 1) she was in a hurry to get home before her stepmother, because she snuck out of the house without permission, and 2) she was in such a hurry that she kicked off her shoes and ran and 3) she was lying, because she didn't want her stepmother to know that she had snuck out.

So maybe it would be best to forget about Cinderella? That would save her a lot of trouble from her Stepmother. But something in Aqua's heart told her not to give up on this. Accordingly, Aqua insisted, "I really need to see your last daughter and have her try on the slipper. Bring her to me right now, Ma'am."

"Who do you think you are? Do not dare tell me what to do!"

Drizella said, "Mother, she's a noblewoman from the Castle. Just do as she says."

Anastasia nodded. "And when Cinderella doesn't fit it, we can laugh at her."

"No!" Lady Tremaine argued. "No! Cinderella won't try on the slipper! I forbid it!"

"What is your problem, lady?" Aqua asked, taking it upon herself to walk upstairs. "You're obviously hiding something."

Lady Tremaine grabbed the skirt of Aqua's dress and yanked her away. "No! Get away!" She physically blocked the staircase with her body. "No! No! No!"

Aqua didn't know what to say. Luckily, she didn't have to say anything. Cinderella appeared at the top of the stairs, and a mouse holding a small key rode atop her shoulder. Stepmother gasped, and touched her neck, only to realize that her necklace was gone. Cinderella said, "Stepmother, I will tell you the truth. I did go to the ball. A magical fairy woman cast a spell on me so that I would have a dress, a carriage, horses, and an escort. I'm sorry I lied. But I'm not sorry that I disobeyed you. Frankly, I'm tired of the way you treat me. I won't stand for it anymore." She pointed to the glass slipper. "That is my slipper. And I'm going to wear it and return to the Prince at the ball."

Cinderella walked down the stairs, pushed her stepmother aside, sat down, and tried on the shoe. It fit perfectly.

As Aqua, the castle guards, and Cinderella rode back to the Castle, the blonde turned to Aqua and said, "I'm so sorry for lying. It's just that I couldn't tell my stepmother that I left the house without her permission. She's abusive. She hits me. She forces me to do all the work around the house. She berates me. She hates me. And I don't really understand why."

Aqua gasped. "What?"

"Yeah…" Cinderella's calm expression crumpled into wide-eyed shock. "I can't go back there. I literally cannot go back. I disobeyed her. I can't go back. There is no way she will let me step foot in that house again. What have I done?" She leaned back and fanned herself with her hands. "What have I done?"

Aqua pulled her into a hug. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault. I shouldn't have gone to the ball. But… But I'm glad I did. I'm so glad I did. I really wanted to go. It was a dream come true to go to the ball tonight. And I was so happy. But what happens next? I don't know…" Tears built up in her eyes.

Aqua gripped Cinderella's shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "It'll be okay."

"How do you know?"

"I don't. I don't know. I can only hope. But I have a lot of hope. And I believe that good things will happen to those who follow their dreams. So I'm telling you that everything will be alright, because I believe it will."

Cinderella laughed, tears forming in her eyes. "Okay. Okay. I'll believe with you." She smiled. "Thank you, um, actually, what's your name?"

"Aqua."

"Aqua. What a beautiful name. I'm Cinderella."

"Nice to meet you, officially. I saw you with Terra at the ball for just a brief moment."

"Oh yes, he escorted me. He's such a nice young man. He really helped me. I wouldn't have had such a great time without him."

Aqua smiled. "Yeah, he's really awesome." Then she lowered her eyes and wondered, _But why is he avoiding me?_

"Do you two know each other?"

"Yes, he's a friend. At least, I hope so…"

Cinderella noticed Aqua's tone. So she changed the subject. She pointed to Aqua's dress. "That's a pretty dress."

"Thanks. Someone made it for me as a gift."

Cinderella looked at her own dress, the one that Ven and the mice had sown for her. "Mine too! But isn't as fancy without a touch of magic. I hope the Prince doesn't mind."

"I don't think he even remembers your face. He probably won't mind at all."

"Haha, that's funny."

"I'm not joking…"

The carriage stopped in the courtyard of the Castle of Dreams. The soldiers helped Cinderella and Aqua disembark. Then they led both up the back steps of the Castle, up to a balcony overlooking the royal gardens. There, the Prince, forlorn, stared at the sparkling moon.

Cinderella dared to say, "My prince?"

He turned. He saw her. "It's you!" He grabbed Cinderella in a hug, picked her up, and spun her around. "It's you!" he set her down. "My dear, what is your name?"

"Cinderella."

"Cinderella?" He kissed her hand. "Cinderella, my dear, would you believe me if I said I've fallen in love with you at first sight?"

"I would have to. You went through all the trouble of finding me."

"Why did you run away?"

She pointed to her dress, her hair, and her makeup. "My magic was wearing off. I was ashamed to let you see me like this."

He tightened his face in confusion. "But you are allowing me to see you now?"

"Well you went through the trouble of finding me. It would be rude not to."

He laughed. "You've got an interesting set of manners, my dear Cinderella." He placed her hand on his heart. "Please don't run away from me again. I didn't fall in love with your outfit, your hair, nor your makeup. I fell in love with the radiance I saw in your heart. It was love at first sight."

"Awwwww!" Aqua and the soldiers cooed. Aqua also felt flattered, because that meant when the prince had mistaken Aqua for Cinderella, he had mistaken Aqua's radiance as Cinderella's. And now that Cindy was genuinely happy, Aqua could see that her radiance was phenomenal. There was no trace of darkness in this girl's heart. Cindy repeated, "Love at first sight?"

"I'm sure you felt it too, right?"

She blushed. "Well…"

Aqua could understand the young woman's hesitation. She wondered if two people could actually fall in love instantly. She wondered if it was truly possibly for two hearts and fates to intertwine so perfectly. This moment reminded Aqua of the day, four years ago, when Terra had accompanied her to the mall. Terra was obviously attracted to her. But Aqua didn't necessarily feel the same way. "Did you expect love at first sight?" Aqua had asked him. "That's so naïve."

After all, she could not understand what was it about her that Terra could have fallen in love with. Her beauty? How superficial! She assumed that he would tire of her and move onto another girl soon enough. But he didn't. So did that mean that Terra truly did fall in love with her at first sight? Did Terra also fall in love with the radiance of her heart?

"Maybe," Cinderella responded.

The Prince knelt down on one knee. "Cinderella, will you marry me?"

Her eyes widened. She retracted her hand and took a step backwards. "Why, I barely even know you, Sir!"

"What must you know, other than I love you?"

"Plenty of things. Your favorite foods, your hobbies, what irks you. Suppose you hate mice. I can't marry you if you hate mice. I love mice. I have a whole nest of them at home as my pets. And you know nothing about me." She sighed. "It's obvious that we have some sort of attraction to each other, but I don't think we should rush into this."

"Oh…" He scratched his head. "I suppose that makes sense." He stood up. "Well then, how about this: I propose that you come to live with me in my castle, as my friend. In a single year's time, should I not frustrate you into departing, may I then propose to you again?"

"That is a wonderful plan."

"Then so shall it be." He took her hand once more. "As for tonight, shall we continue where we left off? A dance, mi'lady?"

She nodded. Together, they walked to the ballroom.

The soldiers complained, "That's it? Not even a thanks to us?" They walked away. Aqua, however, sat down against the railing of the balcony, pulling her knees close to her chest. She rested her head in between her knees and said to herself, "So it really was love at first sight, huh Terra? So why are you acting like this?"

She soon fell asleep. She might have spent the night there on that balcony if Cinderella had not happened to pass by and notice. She convinced the Prince to carry Aqua to a guest room of the castle to sleep there.


	60. Into the Woods

Ven's Sunday night was equally as fun.

Keyblade in hand, Ven slashed one of the bat-like unversed that were flying around in the forest of this world. He was out of breath, and leaned against a tree to regain his strength. "I must have destroyed at least a hundred of them," he said to himself. He looked to his left and right. All he saw were trees. The thick canopy of leaves blocked out most of the starlight and moonlight. "I'm lost…"

He squatted down and exhaled. "Don't panic, Ven. Think. Just calm down and think. You're lost in a forest that is overrun with unversed." He took out his cell phone. "You don't have service, so you can't call Aqua or Terra." He put his cell back into his pocket. "You're tired and hungry because you've been running around all day. And you really want to go home. But, you need to find Terra and talk some sense into him. And you need to protect Aqua. So pull yourself together and do that."

He stood up and continued to walk along the forest until he heard someone cry, "Help!" He ran toward the sound. He found a black-haired young girl, fighting off the bats with a stick. "Help!" she cried, as she backed away and swatted at one.

Ven jumped into action. "Thunder!" The bolts rained from the sky, striking down the fluttering creatures. The girl shrieked and covered her head, dropping to her knees. Ven threw his keyblade at the last few that were terrorizing her. Upon catching his blade, he rushed to her and asked, "Are you okay?"

She looked up at Ven. "Y-yes, I think so. Thank you!" She stood up and dusted herself off. She was lighted-skinned girl. Her skin was so pale that she seemed almost albino. It was a sharp contrast to her short, black, bobbed curly hair. Ven couldn't see too well, but he could tell that her eyes were dark brown, and that she had a really pretty face, with wide eyes, a pointed nose, and thin, pink lips, and pink cheeks. She was petite, and that was only accentuated by the oversized indigo-colored overalls that she wore over her loose yellow shirt. She seemed about Ven's age. "Was that magic that you used?" she asked.

He nodded.

"Whoa! That's amazing!" Although it was dark, Ven could tell that her eyes were shining. She clapped her hands. "I've always wanted to learn how to use magic! How'd you learn?"

Ven scratched the back of his head and blushed. "I train with my Old Man back home."

"Back home? Where's home?"

"I'm not from this world. I'm from another world."

"Which one?"

"Ever heard of the Land of Departure?"

"Nope. It must be far away. Why are you here?"

Ven sighed. "It's a long story."

"Do you have a place to stay?"

He shook his head.

"Come with me then! I live in a little cottage in the woods. There's seven others but I'm sure we can make space."

Ven was thrilled at this stroke of good luck. "Okay!"

"But in exchange, you have to help me get back home. There are so many bats!"

Ven nodded. She led the way and he stuck close behind her. She told him, "There were never bats in this forest before. But then again, I rarely stay out this late. My name is Snow White, but you can call me Snow. What's your name?"

"I'm Ventus. Ven for short. Nice to meet you Snow."

"The pleasure is—" She was cut off because an army of bats swooped down out of nowhere. She ducked to the ground. Ven jumped into the air and spun around, whipping up a storm of wind to destroy all of them. Snow White stood up and sighed with relief while Ven collected the munny that the unversed dropped.

Although they encountered a couple more armies of bats, both made it back safely to Snow White's cottage. "Safe!" she exclaimed, while clapping her hands. "I'm so happy! Thank you!" She hugged Ven. Then she opened the door and went inside, shouting, "I'm home!"

Seven voices replied in unison, "Hi Snow!"

Snow White pulled Ven inside as well. "And I brought a friend!"

Seven voices replied in unison, "Hi friend!"

Ven took a good look at the house. It was a small edifice, well-furnished with child-sized furniture. He was a bit surprised to see several small, white-bearded men gathered in the living room, drinking beers. Each wore a scuffed-up brown button-down shirt and blue jeans. Three wore hats to cover their balding heads. All of them had big, rounded noses and rounded cheeks. They were all burly, with gruff voices.

"This is Ven," she introduced, while gesturing to Ven. "He's a mage that comes from an exotic faraway land!"

Ven tried to say, "That's not exactly true," but one of the dwarf men spoke over him, asking, "Why you hanging out with boys this late?"

Snow White turned up her nose. "Because I got lost in the woods while I was gathering herbs! Monsters attacked me, but he saved me! So you owe him thanks, not suspicion!" But her face was flushing. The dwarves all burst into laughter. A different one said, "You ain't gotta make no excuses, girl. You go do what you want to. Just don't be bringing home no babies."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not like that!"

A third one said, "We're just messing with you, Snow."

A fourth one said, "I'm not. She better be careful because boys only have two things on their minds. Food and sex."

Snow insisted, "Guys! I'm not lying! There were seriously monsters in the woods!"

Ven came to her defense. "Yeah. I've been fighting them. They look like bats."

Now the dwarves seemed a little more concerned. "For real?" asked the fifth one.

Ven and Snow nodded. The seven dwarves exchanged glances. Then they ran to Snow's side and started fussing over her. "Are you okay?" they all asked.

"I'm fine. A few scratches here and there, and I lost my basket of herbs, but I'm fine." She pointed to Ven. "Thanks to him! So would you mind if he spent the night here?"

The dwarves exchanged glances. The sixth and seventh dwarves approached Ven. With serious eyes, they inspected him. The two rubbed their hairy chins and nonverbally debated via eye contact. Then they nodded and gave a thumbs up. Snow White clapped her hands. "You can stay!" she cheered to Ven. "So I'll go make dinner for eight—no, nine, because myself included!" She ran off to the kitchen.

Thus, Ven was alone with the seven dwarves. He sat down beside them on the sofa. "Thanks for letting me stay."

"No problem Kiddo," said one dwarf. "The name's Manheim."

"Manheim?" repeated Ven.

"Guerrero," the second said.

"Robinson," the third said.

"Zilberschlag," said the fourth.

"Fonzarelli," said the fifth.

"Hsung," said the sixth.

"McQuack," said the seventh.

Ven pointed to each of them and repeated their names. "Manheim, Guerrero, Robinson, Zilberschlag, Fonzarelli, Hsung, McQuack." They nodded. Ven nodded and pointed to himself. "I'm Ventus. But you can call me Ven."

"Hello, Ven," the dwarf men said in unison.

"Thanks for saving our little girl," Robinson said, patting Ven on the back. "We owe ya one."

"No problem! If anything, she saved me. I was lost in the forest."

Hsung asked, "So what brings you here to the Woodlands in the first place?"

Ven sighed. "It's a long story. So—"

They heard Snow shouted from the kitchen, "No! Don't tell the story without me! Wait until dinner!"

Ven and the dwarves laughed.

Snow White prepared a simple meal of mashed potatoes and gravy, chicken, and vegetables. They all sat down to eat and talk a large dining table. The chairs and utensils were a little too small for Ven, but he managed it. He also told his story. "I'm searching for a friend of mine. His name is Terra. He ran off this morning and I don't know why."

"Is he a mage too?" inquired Snow.

"No, no, we aren't mages. We're keyblade users." He stretched out his hand to summon his blade. Snow White leaned closer to inspect Wayward Wind, taking note of its shape and color. "It looks like a key," she said. "Is this what allows you to use magic?"

He nodded. "Yup."

"How did you learn to use it?"

Ven pursed his lips as he thought about it. "Well… um… I guess I always could… Anyway, have you guys seen a tall, brawny guy with brown hair spiked upwards and backwards? He has a strong chin and really long eyelashes, and was probably wearing a black shirt and long, flowy pants and armored shoes and a shoulder plate. Maybe wearing a thick glove on one hand. He also has a weapon like mine, only bigger."

The dwarves and the girl shook their heads. Ven sighed. "Okay. Well, if you do happen to see him, can you tell him that Ven is looking for him? I just want to bring him home."

"Is he your brother?"

"No, he's my friend. We're both studying under our Master so that we can also become masters. Since Terra is older than me, he took the test for mastery, but he failed. And maybe that's why he left? I don't know. He's been acting really weird and I'm really worried. I think that if I can sit down and talk to him, everything will be alright."

"Don't worry Ven. You'll find him." Snow gave him an encouraging smile. But Ven looked at his food, forlorn. So Manheim the dwarf said, "I know what'll cheer ya up, Kiddo! After dinner, let's play a round of blackjack!"

The other dwarves agreed. Once everyone had finished eating, they started playing cards. Zilberschlag brought out some beers, and soon, the dwarves were drunk and giddy. They joked and danced around while telling funny stories. "You know, when I was a wee lad," McQuack, his cheeks rosy, said, "I would dance around, all by myself, when no one was looking, and pretend that I was the most popular muse in the land." He began to dance a jig atop the table. Ven and Snow, who weren't allowed to partake in the alcohol, burst into laughter.

Late into the night, the dwarves nodded off on the floor. Snow gathered up all the beer bottles, tossed them in the trash, and proceeded to wash the dishes left over from dinner. Ven offered his help, saying, "I can sweep up or something." So he did. Meanwhile, he said, "Your family is really funny."

Snow White nodded, "Yeah, the dwarves are like dads to me. They've been taking care of me for a year now, and they don't ask for anything in return. The least I can do is the chores, or cook dinner, or go hunting, you know?"

"What do you mean by they've been taking care of you?"

"Exactly that. They took me in when I had nowhere else to go."

"Why did you have nowhere else to go?"

"My evil stepmother kicked me out." She set down the dishes and sighed. "Well, more like chased me out. My stepmother is obsessed with beauty. Obsessed to the point of insanity. She believes that she needs to be the most beautiful woman in this world. She spends hours locked in her room, talking to herself in her mirror. It's insane. Somehow she got this idea that I'm prettier than her, even though I had just become fourteen years old at the time. So she told one of the huntsmen to kill me."

"What?!" Ven exclaimed.

She nodded. "Yup. That's what Rain told me."

"Rain?"

"My friend. He was a huntsman."

"Wait, wait, wait. What's a huntsman?"

"Someone who catches wild game to cook and eat. At the castle we employ a bunch of them because we're always having feasts."

"Castle?"

She smirked. "Yeah! I'm a princess."

"No way."

"Yes way. I'm the princess of this land. Stepmother is the Queen. And she told my friend Rain, the huntsman, to kill me and bring back my heart as evidence."

Ven shook his head. "No way."

She nodded. "I believed Rain. He's a year older than me, but he's my best friend. We played together all the time as kids, and he trained me to hunt game. He's acted like a big brother to me since I was just a little girl. Why would he make up a lie like that?"

A wave of sadness filled Ven's heart. "But… family shouldn't hurt each other."

She shrugged, saying, "As of now, my real family are the dwarves. I don't know much about my birthmother, because she died soon after I was born. I barely knew my father because he died soon after he married Stepmother, and I was still very young. So I've been living with my insane stepmother long enough to know that's she's capable of trying to kill me… Anyway, I ran away and the dwarves took me in. Since then, I've been here."

Ven shook his head. "That's insane."

"Exactly, right?" She sighed. "Not only was I forced to run away from home, but because Rain disobeyed the Queen, he was arrested for treason, and killed." Her voice cracked. Her lips were trembling. She blinked back tears.

Ven didn't know what to say.

She finished with the dishes and wiped her hands on her overalls. "So I've been really, really sad about that. But sadness isn't going to fix anything. So here I am, trying to do the best I can with what I have. It's hard, though, sometimes, because sometimes I feel so lonely." Leaning against the counter, she covered her mouth and sniffled.

Ven didn't know what to say.

She wiped away the tears and, sniffled. "The dwarves go to work every I'm alone here most of the day."

"You just sit around?" Ven asked.

She shook her head. "I hunt. I gather herbs. I started a garden in the back. I cook. I clean… But when I was a princess in the castle, I had tutors, we had balls, I had friends…" She shut her eyes. Her nose was dripping, and she was shuddering. Her voice became high pitched, as if her throat was tightening from holding back sobs. "But I can't go back, or else Stepmother will kill me. So is this how I'm going to live forever? In hiding? It's really scary to think about that. But I think about it so much. I stay awake at night just thinking about it. What's going to happen to me?"

Ven reached out to place his hand on her shoulder, because he didn't know what to say. Snow shrugged it off and laughed. "Haha, never mind. Sorry, I shouldn't be saying these sort of things to a guy I just met. It's just really nice to speak to someone my age for once. And—"

He pulled her into a hug. "Hey, it's okay to talk about the stuff that's bothering you. I'll listen."

At first, she was hesitant. Slowly, she wrapped her arms around Ven and nestled her head against his chest. "Thanks," she whispered. Then she kept silent, breathing slow, deep breaths. Eventually, she pulled away. "Ven, have you ever felt so scared that you can't even breathe?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Recently, I've been feeling that way all the time."

"Because of your friend Terra?"

"Yeah, because of my fear of losing him."

"For me, it's a fear of my stepmother finding me. I don't want to die."

Ven gazed into her forlorn eyes. "Well, then, maybe you should come with me."

"What?"

"Run away from this world." He held out his hand. "You don't need to hide forever. And I'll protect you."

She reached out to hold his hand. "That's sweet…" Her grip tightened. "But I don't think I could. Who would take care of me?"

"You could come stay with me."

"I don't know… What's your family like?"

"Well, there's Master Eraqus," Ven began. "He's my Old Man. He's really lazy, but he really cares about all of us. Then there's Aqua. She's super nosy and overprotective. But she's pretty good at arts and crafts. She made this for me." He showed Snow White his Mizz Piggy doll equipped with the Wayfinder necklace.

"How cute!"

"Then there's Terra. He's super strong, but he always fusses at me. I guess that's how he shows he cares."

"That sounds like a great family."

"Yeah. And I don't want to lose them." He cuddled Mizz Piggy and the Wayfinder close to his heart. "I love them all so much."

The two were silent for a moment.

Snow White said, "It's getting late. I think we should go to sleep. I'll get you some blankets so that you can sleep on the couch."

Ven nodded.

That night, Ven lay awake on the couch, staring at the ceiling. He clutched his doll to his chest. "Mizz Piggy," he said, "I really don't know what I'd do without them. I really don't want to lose my family."

He eventually fell asleep. Like clockwork, he woke up at sunrise. And Snow was awake too, making breakfast. "Good morning," she told him.

"Good morning." He stood beside her as she scrambled some eggs. "Need any help?"

"Can you wake up the dwarves for me please?"

So Ven set about that task. It was actually quite difficult to rouse the hungover old men. They were groggy as they ate breakfast. "Bye Snow," each Dwarf said as he grabbed his pickaxe and left the house.

Once the dwarves were gone, Ven checked the time on his cellphone. It was about 8:30 am. He told Snow, "I guess I should get going then." He too headed for the door. Snow grabbed his hand. He paused. She didn't say anything. So he asked, "Are you coming with me?"

She shook her head. "Why don't you stay here?"

He sighed. "I can't…"

She, too, sighed. "Well, then, come visit me again one day, okay?"

He nodded. They hugged. She stood at the doorway, waving goodbye as Ven entered into the forest. She watched as he activated his armor, opened a portal, and flew off into the lanes between.

* * *

 **Author's Note: THANK YOU GUYS FOR READING UP TO 60 CHAPTERS OF THIS FANFICTION!**

 **It's been a LONG road, and I'm not even half-way done with what I have planned for this story. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.**


	61. Oops, I Did It Again

When Terra landed in this world at around 1am, he thought he would rest under a tree or something until the sun rose. But no, there were unversed littering this world too. And they were attacking the guards at a nearby castle. Although he was exhausted, Terra couldn't just ignore the battle. So he jumped in to save them.

This time, the little fuckers took the shape of brightly wrapped chocolate bars with hands and feet and sharp teeth. There were hundreds of them, each about the size of an actual chocolate bar. They should have been easy to fight, right? Wrong! They used their shiny wrapping to reflect the moonlight right into the eyes of their enemies, blinding them. And while Terra and the guards were blinded, they swarmed and bit and scratched and punched.

They weren't easy to hit, either. They were too small and too nimble. Terra quickly realized that brute force wasn't the best strategy. So he raised his blade and said, "Magnera!" He gathered all of the chocolate bar unversed into one area. With a flick of his blade he batted them up into the sky. Then he jumped up and slammed the ball downward.

The unversed exploded into munny and sparkles.

After the battle, the castle guards thanked him profusely. "Our deepest gratitude, wandering mage!" they cheered.

"Wandering mage?" Terra repeated, yawning. "I guess you could call me that. But the name's Terra."

"Mage Terra, have you a place to rest tonight?" asked another soldier.

He shook his head, so the soldiers invited him into the castle for a late-night meal, a bubble bath, and a warm bed.

The next morning Terra woke feeling refreshed, and joined the guards for breakfast. A young soldier said, "Please, regale us with tales of your faraway land, Mage Terra."

An older soldier sternly rebuked him, "Hush boy! Do not be rude to the Mage."

Terra assured him, "It's fine. I'm not really a mage. I'm a keyblade… wielder…" Not a master. Just a wielder. Still a student. After four long years of training. This journey of his was supposed to be his second chance at earning the Mark. He was supposed to be taking this seriously.

"Keyblade? Pray tell what is that?"

Terra summoned his blade. "An enchanted sword shaped like a key. It's a powerful weapon, and can be passed down from generation to generation. My father wielded it, and his father did too. They say it appears to those who it deems worthy, people with strong hearts."

"Marvelous!" said the young soldier. "A magical swordsman! Perhaps you can help us then. Since yesterday, monsters have been appearing all over our world."

"They're called unversed," Terra told him. "And my master tasked me with destroying them. That's why I'm here. Tell me where they come from and I'll take care of them."

A solider suggested, "He should speak to our Queen. She could use her enchanted mirror to divine the source of the monsters."

Thus, Terra was sent into what seemed like a dungeon to speak to the Queen of the land. He pushed open the heavy wooden doors and found himself looking at a solemnly beautiful woman. She wore a tight-fitting black dress with a black cape and black headdress that hid her hair. She was pale, her eyes dark, and her lips blood red. She was talking to her own reflection in a mirror, "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?"

A face reminiscent of a drama club tragedy mask appeared in the mirror, and said, "My Queen, you are fair, that much is true, but your stepdaughter Snow White is fairer than you."

"Damn it!" she screamed. "Where is she, Mirror? That I must know. Her location, dear Mirror, to me you must show!"

"A cottage in the woods, with dwarves by her side. There she lays low, her time to bide."

The Queen roared angrily and banged on the mirror.

 _What the hell is her problem?_ Terra thought. _And that mirror, can it tell where people are? I wonder if I could use it to find Master Xehanort._ So Terra spoke up, "Um, excuse me?"

The Queen whipped her head around to see who had spoken. She took a very long look at Terra. She blinked, and calmed herself. "Who are you, young man?" she approached him slowly, while batting her eyelasshes.

"You can call me Mage Terra," he replied.

She stood in front of him. "And what brings you to my Mirror Room?" She raised an eyebrow and smiled.

"Uh…" he felt a bit uncomfortable. He took a step back. "I am here to defeat the unversed that plague your world."

"I see. Mage Terra, am I beautiful?"

"Uh, yes?"

"The most beautiful woman that you have ever seen?" she asked eagerly.

 _No, that would be Aqua,_ Terra thought. But he sensed this vibe of craziness from her, so he answered, "Yes?"

The woman smiled. "Wonderful." Her face began to look warm and kind. "Mage Terra, I have a favor to ask. You see, my dear, dear, dear stepdaughter, Snow White, has run away from me. A childish impulse, I believe. She is only 15-years-old. I fear for her." She hugged Terra and laid her head against his chest. "My poor stepdaughter is living in the woods with a group of dwarves. I worry for her." She placed her hand on his pex. "I am so worried. So, so worried."

Terra felt really awkward. Like, really, really awkward, so he said, "Um… okay?"

"Would you go find her for me? And bring her home? Please?"

The young man thought about it for a moment. He remembered that Aqua had run away from home when she was just fifteen, and that she had her reasons for doing so. Therefore, he replied, "I don't think I can do that."

The Queen smiled in a vicious way; as if she would have frowned, but she didn't want the wrinkles. "Then perhaps you can deliver some goods to her?" She walked to a shelf, where there was a basket of apples. "I worry that she is not eating well. Give her these apples." She handed it to him. "I hand-picked them. Give them to her, and watch her eat one. Please?"

Terra was a little confused. "What about the unversed?"

"Hmm?"

"The monsters. That are attacking your world?"

"First deliver the apples to my stepdaughter. But do not tell her that I sent them. She will refuse it because she doesn't want to rely on me. She is a fiercely independent girl."

"Sounds like a girl I know. Fine, I'll deliver the apples."

"She is in a cottage in the woods. I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding it."

So Terra went on his way. It wasn't until Terra was trekking through the thick bramble of the forest that he wondered why the Queen hadn't sent the guards to deliver groceries to her stepdaughter. Maybe the girl would refuse because she knew the guards worked for the Queen? But then couldn't the guards disguise themselves? And why did the girl run away in the first place? How did she end up in a cottage in the woods?

He arrived at the cottage with more questions than he had apples in his wicker basket. "Well, whatever," he told himself, as he knocked on the door. "Hello!" he called out. "I'm… a traveling apple salesman. Would you care for some free apples?"

"No thanks," replied a girl's voice from the other side of the door.

"But I have the finest apples."

"No thanks," she repeated.

Terra kept knocking on the door. "I'll give them to you for free."

"Okay, then, um, leave them on the doorstep."

Terra was about to set the apples down, but then he figured that the Queen would ask if Snow had actually eaten one, and Terra didn't want to lie. "Why don't I just hand them to you?"

Little Snow White was more than a bit hesitant to allow this unfamiliar grown man into her modest home in the woods. Leaning her back against the door, she said, "Please go away sir. I'm not that interested in your apples."

"Come on, I'm offering you free apples." He knocked on the door faster, with a little more force. "Just take the apples. They're awesome apples."

"No thanks!" Her voice was shaky. "Please leave me alone."

At that point, Terra realized that he was frightening the girl. "Hey, hey, I'm not trying to scare you. Let's start over. My name is Terra. What's yours?"

"Terra? Do you know a guy named Ven?"

"Ven? As in Ventus?" Terra said. "He has blonde spiky hair, blue eyes, fair skin? Probably dressed in black and white and he's kind of adorable?"

Perhaps it was the sudden relief that overwhelmed her that caused her to open the door, ever so slightly. She peeked her head through the crack. "Yeah. Are you Ven's friend?"

He nodded. "How do you know Ven?"

"He stopped by last night. He just left a little while ago."

"He stopped by?"

"He said that he was looking for you. He said that he was worried about you because you've been acting a bit weird."

"Oh…" Terra slumped over, and stared at the dirt path beneath his feet. "He must be really worried if he traveled all the way out here to look for me. What am I doing? Why am I doing this? Why am I making him and Aqua worry?"

Snow White opened the door entirely. "Are you okay?"

"Not really," he answered honestly. "Here I am delivering apples while my friend is running around, looking for me…"

"Do you want to talk about it?" Snow asked, gesturing inside. Terra nodded. He entered the warm little cottage. Snow lead him to the dining room table. She said, "Everything is a bit small because the house belongs to dwarves."

He sat on a small wooden chair. "I feel like I'm in a child's playhouse." He chuckled. Snow giggled as she sat beside him. Terra placed the apples down, and took one for himself. Then he offered the basket to Snow, saying, "Want an apple?"

She shrugged. "Sure." Taking one, she wiped it on the cloth of her shirt and bit into it. "Yum! This is a really good apple."

Terra took a bite his apple. "So Ven was here? Do you know where he went?"

Snow shook her head. "No. He only said that he was looking for you so he could bring you home. He said he doesn't want to lose you."

With a yawn, Terra leaned back in the chair. "Why would Ven think that? He's like family to me. But I guess it's my fault. I ran off and didn't come home at all yesterday."

"Ven just wants to talk to you." Snow White yawned too. She set down her half-eaten apple.

"I bet he tried to call me." So Terra took out his cell phone, which had been on silent since the day before. He had not checked it since he left the Castle of Dreams. Terra saw a ton of missed called from Aqua, Ven, and even Master Eraqus. There were a bunch of text messages too. He yawned. "I should call them back…"

But he didn't. He gloomily stared at his phone.

Snow asked, "How did you end up selling apples?"

Terra took another bite of his. "Honestly," he spoke with his mouth full, "Your stepmom asked me to deliver them to you, because she was worried about you."

"S-s-stepmother?" Snow White jumped out of her seat. Any color that she had in her pale face drained away.

"Are you alright?" Terra asked.

She felt her eyes become heavy. She realized that her breathing was slowing down. Each breath took effort. Her hands face went numb. Then her hands. "Oh no. Oh no…" mumbled Snow, while every muscle in her body felt as if it was melting into mush.

"What's wrong?"

Snow fell, knocking her head against the edge of the table, before landing hard on the floor. Terra, horrified, stood up to help her. Unfortunately, his legs also went numb. He toppled face forward into the ground. He felt as if someone was sitting on his arm as he reached out toward Snow White.


	62. An Eye for An Eye

He didn't remember falling asleep, so of course he was startled to be woken up with a kick to the side of the head. "You villain! You villain!" someone was shouting.

"HUH!?" Terra exclaimed, rolling over. His eyes opened. He stared at a wooden roof. "Where am I?"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" screamed several little old men as they scattered away. They hid behind chairs, up in the shelves, and under the table. Terra rubbed the side of his head and looked around, as he tried to remember what happened. Noticing Snow White laying listless on the floor beside him, his eyes doubled in size. "Hey?" he called out as he reached out to shake her shoulder. "Hello? You okay?"

She didn't move.

"Hey wake up," Terra said, shaking her a little harder. "Hello? Come on kid, wake up."

Nothing. She felt cold.

"Hey! Hello!" Terra shouted.

She wasn't even breathing. Terra started to panic. He kept shaking her. He screamed, "Wake up!"

Manheim shouted, "We've already tried to wake her up!"

McQuack added, "She won't wake up! We've been trying to wake her up!"

"Who are ya and what did ya do to her?" asked Fonzarelli.

Terra tried to defend himself. "I didn't do anything!"

"Yes you did!" argued Zilberschlag. "She was fine this morning!"

Terra kept shaking Snow. "I didn't do anything. I just gave her the apples from the Queen."

Guerrero shouted, "He's the Queen's henchman! Sent to kill Snow!"

Hsung shouted, "Leave us alone you wicked villain you!"

Terra's malicious glare shut the dwarves. They cowered in their hiding spots. Standing up, Terra rummaged through the basket of apples. "The apples that the Queen gave me, we both ate them and we both passed out… But why did I wake up and she didn't?" Kneeling down beside the girl, Terra took her dainty hand in his. "Maybe because I'm bigger, I didn't get a lethal dose…" He squeezed her hand. "I didn't mean to hurt her," he mumbled. "I wasn't trying to hurt her. Why do I keep hurting everyone? What is wrong with me?"

The dwarves watched as Terra released the little girl's hand. With a violent scowl, he demanded, "Burn those apples. Meanwhile, I'm going to pay the Queen a visit." And he left the cottage.

Terra wasted no time. He sprinted back to the Castle, keyblade in hand, and charged into the dungeon room where the Queen had been. Of course, she was still in there, staring at herself in the mirror. She looked like she was in a trance as she touched her face lightly with the tips of her fingers, massaging it gently, while pouting her lips. The Queen was so enthralled by herself that she didn't notice Terra, or anything else at all.

She was definitely crazy.

Why hadn't Terra realized that before? Why did Terra give the girl the poison apples?

"Hey!" Terra shouted.

The Queen turned around. Her expression soured. "Did you give her the apples?"

"What the fuck have you done?" Terra retorted, brandishing his blade. He pointed it toward her. But she did not seem at all frightened. In fact, she seemed thrilled. She banged her fist on the mirror and chanted, "Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?"

The face in the mirror spoke, "In this world, my Queen, this is true: no one else is fairer than you."

"My Moons!" she exclaimed giddily. "You have done it! You have done it!" She twirled around, her hands in the air. "I am the most beautiful woman in this world! I am the fairest of them all, now that the stupid girl is out of my way!"

Terra's body began to tremble with rage. "No… no… you tricked me into killing her because of a petty thing like beauty?"

The mirror continued, "But my Queen, when Snow White awakes, in the contest for fairest, she will take first place."

A deep, long gasp escaped from the Queen's mouth. "Is she still alive? How could this be?" She glared at Terra, creasing her face with wrinkles. "I told you to make her eat the entire apple!"

"You wicked bitch," Terra growled. He marched toward her, his blade drawn. Both him and his weapon glowed with a dark aura. It radiated off of him, as if he was sizzling and steaming hot. The Queen backed away. "Guards!" she yelled. "Guards!"

Too late.

Terra struck her down.

Right in the face.

As she lay there, screaming, bleeding, her hands covering her left eye, Terra shouted, "How can I save her?"

"Guards! Guards!" she shrieked.

Finally, the guards arrived. They gasped in horror at the darkening silhouette of Terra. Terrified, they were frozen in place. Terra scoffed at them. Returning his attention to the Queen, he happened to glance at the magic mirror. He saw why they were scared.

Terra did not recognize his own reflection.

Who was this entity of darkness standing in front of him? Terra pressed his hand against the mirror. It was him. It was definitely him. Leaning his forehead against the glass, Terra muttered, "The darkness… it's taking over me…" To the Queen, he roared, "You did this! You did this to me!"

The Queen replied with agonized screams. The guards were still too scared to move. Terra staggered back, pulling at his hair with one hand, eying his darkening keyblade in the other. "I want to fix this! How do I fix this? Tell me what I need to do to fix this!"

She was still screaming. The left side of her face was bleeding profusely.

Terra turned to the mirror. "You! Tell me how to help her! There's got to be a way to help her!"

The face in the mirror eyed him with a dramatic, tragic face, and said nothing. So Terra punched it, shattering it into a million pieces of mirror, on the floor, each with a tiny replica of the mirror's face. In a mocking tone, Terra said, "Mirror on the fucking wall, how deep into the darkness will I fall?"

Suddenly, the mirror's voice rang out, "Young man with tainted heart, you will be forever scarred. To find the one you seek, travel to the keyblade graveyard."

And it went silent. For the final time.

Frustrated, threw his hands into the air. "Graveyard? What Graveyard?"

He pushed past the terrified guards and left the castle. Summoning his keyblade glider, he left the world.


	63. Beauty Mark

Aqua awoke in a feather bed, engulfed by sheets as soft as marshmallows. She yawned, sat up, and stretched. She was still dressed in her fancy ball gown from the night before. "Oh what?" she mumbled. "When did I fall asleep?" She stood up. Her shoes were neatly placed beside the bed. "Where am I?"

Peeking out of the bedroom door, she happened to see the Prince's true love walking down the corridor. "Cinderella!" Aqua called out.

"Lady Aqua!" Cindy said, entering the room. "Good morning! I was just coming to wake you. I ran a bath for you."

"You what?"

"And after a bath, I can serve you breakfast in bed, if you would like."

"Wait, wait, wait, why? What's going on?"

"Well I'm sure you're used to all this, right? Seeing as you're a noblewoman."

"Who told you that?"

"My Prince."

"But I'm not… well technically I am… Okay, anyway, I should get going. What time is it?"

"Noon."

"NNOOOONN!" Aqua rubbed her temples. "Oh no! I wasted half the day. Arrgh." She sighed. "You know what, why not? I'll stay for a bath and some breakfast."

After her bath, Aqua changed back into her normal clothes, a black, halter-top romper with a corset around her waist, thigh-high socks, metallic ankle boots, and a shoulder plate of armor.

"ARE YOU A KNIGHT?!" Cinderella exclaimed, upon seeing Aqua dressed in her gear.

"No, no, I'm just a keyblade student… Well, a keyblade master." It felt good to say that. She smiled.

"I don't know what that means, but it sounds wonderful." Cindy led Aqua to a dining hall, where the Prince was sitting at a fancy dining table, sipping tea and reading a newspaper. "Lady Aqua has arrived," Cinderella announced. She pulled out a chair for Aqua, to which the latter replied, "You don't have to do that, Cinderella."

The prince chuckled. "I told her that as well. She insists on acting like a servant instead of my lover."

Cindy corrected him, "I'm not your _lover_. Maybe your _love interest._ "

"But _lover_ sounds much more romantic."

"Not the way you say it. It makes me feel _dirty_."

"Ah! Then I shall call you my love interest then, my dear."

Aqua laughed. "Invite me to the wedding."

"Most certainly!" the prince said. "It shall be a grand affair! The whole kingdom will be invited."

Sighing, Cinderella said, "That sounds too grand. I'm not accustomed to being spoiled."

The prince swooped Cinderella into his arms and declared, "I shall change that, my dear."

Cindy blushed. Aqua laughed.

After breakfast and her final goodbyes, Aqua opened a portal, activated her armor, and used her glider to fly off into the space between worlds.

She landed near another Castle, this time in a woodland. Stepping off of her glider, she reverted it to keyblade form. With her other hand, she took out her cellphone. It was her first time checking it today, and she was surprised to see a bunch of missed calls from Ven, and a few from her older brother. "HUH?! What? How could I have missed this?" The calls were from this morning. Rationally, Aqua guessed, "I must have been sleeping so deeply that I didn't hear my phone ring." Ven had texted her, _Hi I'm fine have you found Terra?_

Also, Master Eraqus had texted her. _Hows it going_

She tried to call Ven back. He didn't answer. So she texted him, _Sorry I was asleep. Where are you?_

To Master Eraqus, she sent _I still don't know where Ven and Terra are._

Then she texted Terra. _Terra call me plz. Plzzzzzzz?_

Finally, to her brother she texted, _I'm busy. I'll call you later._ She also added a bunch of smiley-face emojis.

She was so focused on her phone, that she didn't notice the army of castle guards creeping up around her, forming a circle, their swords drawn. When she looked up from her phone, they rushed her. Her 360-degree ultimate protection barrier popped up.

BAM, they were all knocked back. Aqua put away her phone, and assumed a battle stance. "Who are you and why are you attacking me?"

A guard shouted, "You're one of 'em! You're one of them keysword mages!"

"Keysword? Keyblade?"

"Where'd the other one go?" shouted another.

"The other one? Was he a tall guy? Brown hair? Muscular?"

"Yeah! You know him?" a third guard asked. "Mage Terra?"

Aqua nodded. "Was he here?"

"He just left! Just now! After the vicious brute tried to kill our Queen!"

Aqua's eyes widened. "What?"

"You're under arrest!" shouted the first guard. "For association with an attempted murderer of our fair Queen."

Aqua shook her head. "No. No, no, no, no. Terra wouldn't… There's got to be some sort of mistake!" The guard inched closer to her. She insisted, "Terra wouldn't hurt anyone! There's got to be an explanation!" The guards inched even closer. "Look, I'm not going to fight you!" She dismissed her keyblade from her hands, and raised her arms in a statement of peace. "I don't want trouble. I want to know what happened."

They tackled her.

Aqua found herself thrown into a damp, rancid, poorly lit dungeon in the sewers of the castle. As the guards locked the heavy metal door, Aqua shouted, "I can break out of here whenever I want!" She pinched her nose. "And it'll probably be sooner than later."

A faint voice whispered, "Hello?"

"Eek!" Aqua turned to see a young man festering in the corner. He was a dark-haired-lad, maybe sixteen or seventeen years of age, incredibly thin, no, emaciated. His clothes were in tatters. His face was sunken in, his skin was graying, his hair was falling out.

He was dying.

"Oh my GOD," Aqua exclaimed. She rushed to his aid, casting a healing spell over him. A little bit of strength returned to his face, but there wasn't much she could do unless she got him some food and water. "Why are you here?" she asked him.

"The Queen… locked me here…" He groaned. He breathed heavily.

"The Queen? Is she evil?"

"Yes."

Aqua felt a burst of hope. _If the Queen was bad, that means Terra did good by trying to kill her! In fact, Terra might have been trying to save this kid! Right? Of course! Because Terra isn't a bad person,_ Aqua assured herself.

She stood up. She pointed her blade at the back wall. "Don't worry kid, I'll get us out of here." Her blade began to glow with light. "Hyper Beam!" She blasted a hole in the wall.

Sunlight flooded into the dungeon. Hoisting the youth up to support him with her shoulder, she carried him out of the dungeon before the guards could arrive.

Aqua needed this kid alive so that she could question him. Due to his condition, Aqua guessed that he had been locked in that jail cell for a long time. He might not know what happened today with Terra, but he certainly knew about the history of this queen that Terra attacked.

But she needed to get him to safety, first. She couldn't fight the guards while protecting him. Therefore, she raced through the woods, using her magic to make herself and the guy glide over the thick underbrush, and duck under the trees.

She happened to come across a small cottage in the woods, and happened to see two little men standing outside of it. Aqua shouted, "Help!"

They saw her. They gasped.

So now Aqua was sitting on the floor in a small house, watching four of the seven dwarves nurse the young captive back to health. He laid on a sofa, resting, while being fed soup and pieces of bread. Meanwhile, the other three dwarves kept trying to wake a young lady, who was also lying on the floor, in such a deep state of comatose that she seemed dead. In fact, the rise and fall of the girl's chest was so subtle that if one wasn't paying attention, he could mistake her for dead. Also, the girl felt cold to the touch. Ice cold, as if someone had sucked away all of the life from her.

The dwarves introduced themselves to Aqua, and began to explain what happened. "This is Princess Snow White of the Woodlands," Manheim began. "She ran away from the Evil Queen, her stepmother, one year ago, because the Queen ordered Rain the Huntsman to kill her. He was ordered to carve out her heart and give it to the Queen in a wooden box." The dwarf pointed to the young man. "This is Rain, the huntsman that was ordered to kill her. What the Queen didn't know is that Rain is Snow's best friend. So Rain brought her to us and begged us to take care of her. We said yes, of course. Rain is friendly to us, so a friend of his, is a friend of ours. He planned to give the Queen a pig's heart to deceive her, but the Queen was not fooled. Thus she arrested Rain. We thought he was put to death for treason. Poor Snow was devastated when she heard the news."

Aqua winced. "I found him in a dungeon."

Hsung asked Rain, "All this time, you were in the dungeon?"

The boy nodded.

Aqua was mortified, but also relieved. _That means Terra was trying to save Rain and Snow by killing the Queen, right?_ _That's… that's not necessarily a good way to do it, but his heart was in the right place…_

Guerrero said, "The Queen kept sending guards and mercenaries to try to kill Snow. Day after day, Snow hid in this house, and managed to avoid the Queen's attempts. Until today."

McQuack said, "The Queen's henchman broke into the house and poisoned Snow with these apples. Now she is… gone…"

Rain, although weak, sat up. "No…" he mumbled. He reached out toward Snow. "No! No! NO! NO!"

The dwarves urged him to lay down and rest. But he kept shouting, "NO! NO! Snow! SNOW!"

Aqua couldn't bear the sounds of Rain's agony. He had spent a year dying in a dungeon to save her, only to find out that the day he was freed was the day she died… "She's not dead," Aqua declared. "There's got to be some way to wake her up." And once again, dread caused her heart to sink. _What if the reason that Terra tried to kill the Queen is that there isn't a cure?_ Nonetheless, Aqua cast a healing spell on the girl, "Heal!"

Nothing happened.

"Heal!" Aqua tried again. Nothing. "Who did this to her? Maybe he has the cure?"

"We don't know who he was," said Fonzarelli. "We've never seen the likes of him in this world before."

Zilberschlag said, "When we arrived home for lunch, we saw both her and him passed out on the floor. He woke and ran off. She didn't."

"What did he look like?" asked a slightly panicked Aqua.

Robinson begun to describe him, "Tall, brown-haired man, burly, thin eyes, pretty eyelashes—"

Aqua gasped. Now she didn't understand anything. Terra was the Queen's henchman? What? "M-maybe the Queen knows?" Aqua said, standing up. "Yes, I have to go speak to the Queen. The Queen has the answers. I'm going to find out what's happening." She headed toward the door. "I'll be back. And I'll fix this. I promise."

The walk to the Castle in the Woodlands was a solemn one, as Aqua tried to piece together the information. An evil Queen. A semi-dead girl. A miserable, tortured boy. How did Terra connect to all of this?

As she neared the castle, her keyblade drawn, she announced, "Either you fight me, or take me to your Queen."

The guards seemed ready to fight. So Aqua raised her blade into the air and shouted, "Thunderbolt!"

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZRRRRRRP!

A charged beam zapped down from a rapidly greying sky. It struck her blade, coating it with electric power. Storms began to brew overhead. The wind picked up speed. "Take me to your Queen," Aqua demanded.

The guards gave into cowardice and led Aqua to a bedroom where the walls, floor and all of the furniture were coated in reflective material. It was creepy for Aqua to see a room full of her reflection. It felt like a million pair of eyes, judging her, but the eyes were her own. She saw every angle of her body, and started to notice every minor flaw, every little defect. No matter where she turned, Aqua's reflection was constantly there to judge her and be judged.

Even the bed posts were made of reflective crystal. Fortunately, the bedsheets were white cotton. Sitting on the bed was a woman, whose left side of her face was wrapped in bandages. She was repeatedly mumbling incoherently to herself. "My face. My face. My face. My face."

Two guards surrounded the door, four guarded each post of the bed, and one followed closely behind Aqua, holding his sword to her back. Aqua, unafraid, approached the Queen, took her hand, and asked, "What happened?"

"Mmmm-m-m-m-m-my face?"

"What happened to your face?"

"M-m-m-my face? My face." The right eye started to cry. "My face!"

"I can heal your face."

"My face?"

"Yes. I can heal it. But on one condition."

"My face!"

"Tell me exactly what happened to Snow White, Rain the Huntsman, and Mage Terra."

"My face…" was all the woman could say.

Aqua waited for the Queen to elaborate, but after five minutes of hearing, "My face, my face, my face," Aqua got impatient. "Yes or no questions might be better. Nod yes, or shake no. I need answers before I heal you."

The Queen nodded. "My face."

"Did you tell Rain the Huntsman to kill Snow White, your stepdaughter?"

The Queen nodded. "My face."

The guards in the room were taken aback. "But my Queen, you said she ran away."

Aqua asked, "Did you imprison Rain the Huntsman because he disobeyed you?"

The Queen nodded. "My face."

The guards were doubly taken aback. "My Queen! You said he was plotting treason!"

Aqua asked, "Did you send Mage Terra to kill Snow White?"

The Queen nodded. She pointed to her bandages. "My face! My face!" she exclaimed.

"Then he tried to kill you?"

The Queen nodded. "My face! My face!"

"Why?"

The Queen couldn't answer that with a simple nod.

So Aqua then asked, "Snow White isn't dead. She's alive. She's in a deep sleep. Is there a way to wake her?"

The Queen shook her head.

Aqua shook her head as well. "There has to be a way. There's a way, right?"

The Queen shook her head, and insisted, "My face! My face!"

Aqua hesitated. Was it right to heal this woman? After all, she had made two kids suffer. But maybe healing her face would cause her to speak sensibly. For the greater good, Aqua decided to point her keyblade at the Queen and cast, "Heal."

At first, the Queen flinched, expecting to be attacked. But then she felt a wave of cool, like the sensation of peppermint, rush across the left side of her face. She gasped, tore off her bandages and looked at her reflection…

Only to see a dark brown, deep, leathery scar. It was a thick, straight line, from her forehead, across her eyelid, down her cheek, to her chin. She touched it. She screamed. She screamed so loud that Aqua covered her ears. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooo!" shrieked the Queen.

"That's the best I can do! Now tell me how to help Snow White!"

The Queen kept screaming. If she was incoherent before, now she had simply lost her mind. The guards held the Queen and tried to calm her. Aqua shook her head faster. "Stop screaming! Tell me how to help Snow White! Stop screaming! Stop screaming!"

The Queen wouldn't stop screaming. And Aqua realized that this whole endeavor had been useless. She didn't learn anything more about Terra's involvement in the situation, she didn't learn how to help the girl, and she had only caused the Queen more pain. Heartbroken, Aqua ran out of the room.

A keyblade master? How dare she call herself a keyblade master when she couldn't help anyone? Terra was doing crazy shit, Ven was still missing, Snow was still in a coma, Rain was still terribly weak.

Four years of training, for what? To return empty handed to Rain and the dwarves?

But that's what she did. She returned to the cottage, saying, "The Queen was no use." Aqua leaned against the wall, and sniffled. "Sorry."

Manheim the Dwarf said, "It's not your fault. Don't cry."

Robinson added, "Why you crying girl? You've done so much to help. We don't even know you. Yet you're helping us. We should thank you."

She wanted to say that maybe it was her fault. Maybe it was her fault for not chasing after Terra last night at the ball. Maybe it was her fault for sleeping until noon and having breakfast, instead of stopping Terra from doing this. But she couldn't speak, because she was crying.

Rain started crying as well. He staggered to the floor, where Snow White was still lying half-dead, and grabbed her hand. "Snow…" he whispered. He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it. Then held it against his face and sobbed the sort of ugly sob of a guy who has lost everything.

"Rain stop it," Guerrero told the boy, trying to pull him back to the sofa to rest.

"Snow, please, wake up!" he yelled, refusing to let her go. "Please!"

One of his tears fell on her cheek. From that spot, a little bit of red glow spread, creeping across her face until it looked like she was blushing. The color began to spread along her body. The color brought warmth. The warmth brought life.

Her breathing became faster. Her body began to stir. Her hand squeezed Rain's hand. Her eyelids began to open. She groaned.

"SNOW?!" everyone exclaimed.

She sat up and yawned. "Huh?"

Rain grabbed her in a hug. The dwarves joined in. Aqua gasped. "Oh my gosh, she's okay. How is she okay?" she whispered.

She noticed how tightly Rain was holding her, and it seemed as if just her touch was healing him. His skin warmed to a golden, rosy tan. His hair seemed to become fuller, darker, longer. His overall physique improved. He sobbed joyfully, and each tear seemed to breathe more life into Snow White.

"True love," Aqua mumbled.

Then her phone beeped. She checked it. Two texts.

One from just now, her brother saying, _Kay call me when you get the chance._

And one that she had missed, from Ven, an hour ago, _Im in a castle fighting a witch help please its in a world where everyone is asleep dont call its distracting._

Aqua remembered that her job wasn't finished. She slipped out of the door, quietly, to allow Snow, Rain and the dwarves a happy moment of reunion.

At first, Snow was in disbelief. She was shocked so badly that she couldn't think straight. It was only after being hugged for a long, long time that she realized that this was actually happening. Snow blinked a few times. "R-rain? Rain is that you?" She held his face with both hands. "Rain? You look terrible."

He smiled. "Yeah, I bet I do."

"I can't believe it's really you," Snow said. "I thought I'd never see you again."

"Well here I am."

"I thought you were dead," she said, her voice cracking, tears forming in her eyes. She ran her hand through Rain's hair. "I thought you were dead."

"No I was locked in a dungeon. A lady helped me get free." Rain turned around to point to Aqua, but she was gone. "Whoa, were did she go?"

The dwarves looked around. Then they went outside. No Aqua. They were terribly confused. "She just left, I guess," they told Rain.

"Well anyway, a lady came and helped me," Rain explained to Snow. "She had blue hair and this magical sword that looked like a key—"

"A keyblade?" Snow gasped. "She had a keyblade? She must have been one of Ven's friends!"

"Ven?" asked the dwarves.

"From last night?"

"What happened last night?"

Snow frowned. "You don't remember last night, at all? The foreign mage, traveling the worlds to find his friend?"

The dwarves thought about it. They shrugged.

"You guys got blackout drunk and don't remember it at all, do you?" Snow said, frowning. She sighed.

Fonzarelli asked, "What about you, young lady? Do you remember what happened to you?"

"What do you mean?"

"You were in a coma!"

"Huh?! When?"

"Just now!"

Snow thought about it. "I was in a coma?" She rubbed the side of her head, where she had banged it when she fell. Aqua's spell healed the welt that had formed because of it. "Was I really in a coma? The last thing I remember is saying bye to Ven."

The dwarves decided to drop the subject. "Well it doesn't matter now. All that matters is that we're all safe. Okay?"

And they held each other for a long time.


	64. Childish Determination

"TERRA! TERRA!" Ven shouted, wandering around this world. It was riddled with hills, but clear of unversed, which led him to believe that either Aqua or Terra had passed through earlier and defeated them all. The boy checked his cellphone, which was running a bit low on power.

Master Eraqus had texted him, _Where r u? come home_

 _I will soon._ Ven texted.

Master Eraqus immediately replied, _Come home now!_

 _Is Terra home?_

 _Not yet_

 _Tell me when he comes home._

 _Ventus come home RIGHT NOW_

 _No_

 _Y not? R u ok?_

 _yeh_

 _Fine. C u soon. U R IN TROUBLE_

"I know, I know," Ven grumbled as he tried calling Terra. No answer. He tried several more times. No answer.

He sighed. "Maybe Aqua found him?" He texted Aqua, saying, _Hi I'm fine have you found Terra?_ After a couple of minutes, no answer from her either. So he called her. She didn't answer. He called again. No answer. He called again. No answer. He pouted. "But she was calling me all day yesterday." He scratched the back of his head and kept walking. "Well if my phone dies I have to go back home. I didn't bring my charger…"

Over the horizon, Ven spotted a large castle made of grey brick. "Oh cool!" he ran toward it. The gate was wide open, almost as if someone had smashed through it. There were a lot of armed guards lying around beside it. But they were sleeping. "What happened here?" the teen asked himself, walking inside.

It was quiet, save for the sounds of snores and people shifting position. People were sprawled out on the ground, like a giant slumber party. "Everyone's asleep," Ven said, tiptoeing through the castle. "But it kind of looks like a sleeping spell… Wait, what if Terra and Aqua were here, and someone put them to sleep?" That would make sense why Aqua wasn't answering his calls.

Ven spent a little while searching all around, shouting, "Terra! Aqua!" Then he decided to save his breath, because noise wasn't waking anyone. He made his way upstairs.

He walked into a room in a tower. He looked to his left. Nothing interesting there. He looked to his right. He saw a girl, laying on a bed, motionless. "Huh?" He tiptoed closer to her. And closer. He leaned forward and got a good glimpse of her. She had wavy blonde hair. She looked peaceful. She was kind of cute. He quietly gasped, and blushed a little.

"STOP! You get away from her!"

The entire castle had been so quiet this whole time, so hearing someone yell at Ven scared him so much that he jumped. "I'm sorry! I wasn't gonna do anything weird!" he yelled. He turned around to see three little old women pointing magic wands at him. One woman was wearing a red dress, the other was wearing a green dress, and the final was wearing a blue dress.

The one in red fluttered closer to Ven. "Whoa! You can fly!" Ven said, noticing her wings. But she wasn't amused or smiling. "Who are you?" she asked, circling him, as if to inspect him.

"I'm Ventus," Ven said, craning his neck to look at her cute little transparent wings. "But you can call me Ven, for short." He reached out to touch the lady's wings. She smacked his hands and said, "Mind your manners."

"Sorry Grandma," he put his hands at his sides.

The lady in green laughed. "Oh how adorable. You don't seem bad, dear. I'm certain you have a pure heart, just like our precious Aurora."

"Aurora?" Ven turned around. "Is that her name?" He inched closer to her.

"Yes."

"Is she sleeping?"

The fairies lowered their heads.

Ven became a little concerned. "She's just sleeping, right?" He touched the girl's cheek. It was cold. Ice cold. He jumped back, and rubbed his hands together. "Wh-what's going on?"

The red fairy said, "Let's introduce ourselves first. I'm Flora."

The green fairy said, "I'm Fauna."

"I'm Merryweather," said the blue one. "And we're that girl's guardian fairies."

The three guardian fairies waved their wands, conjuring a projected storybook image of a king and queen, cuddling their newborn baby girl. Flora said, "The King and Queen of this land had yearned for a child for many, many years. They had just about given up hope when, at long last, they were blessed with the birth of their beautiful Aurora." The image changed to a massive feast filled with dancing, food and fun. "They celebrated for three days, inviting all the people of the land to join in their happiness. We three were invited as well."

The next image was Flora, Fauna and Merryweather waving their wands above the baby's crib. "As gifts, I bestowed beauty on the baby. Fauna gifted Aurora with grace. But right before Merryweather could give her gift," the image showed Maleficent, surrounded by a wicked green light, "the evil witch Maleficent appeared. Offended that the royals had not invited her to the festivities, she cursed the baby, that by her 16th birthday, she would prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel, and die."

Ven blurted out, "That's insane!"

"Luckily, Merryweather was able to lessen the curse with her gift. She made it so that Aurora would fall into a deep sleep, almost like death, rather than die. And that sleep could be lifted by slaying the witch that cursed her."

"Why couldn't you revoke the curse or something?"

The fairies shook their heads, and Fauna answered, "We are only allowed one gift per child, and that witch's magic is too strong for only one of us to undo entirely. Luckily Merryweather is the strongest of us all, or nothing could have been done about the curse."

Merryweather then said, "Oh I wish I could have un-did that curse! If only I had tried harder!"

Flora said, "You tried your best my dear. Anyway, the King and Queen ordered that all spindles in the land be burned, and then sent their child to live with us in the glen these past sixteen years, in order to hide her from Maleficent. We raised her under the name Rose, and told her nothing of her past and her curse. Yesterday was the evening of her 16th birthday, the evening when she could finally be reunited with her parents. But Maleficent sent her evil soldier of darkness to finally do the deed, and carry out the curse on our dear Princess. Furthermore, just to spite us, Maleficent's minion stole Aurora's heart. Now we are awaiting a hero who can help us defeat Maleficent and save our princess."

The image showed a picture of Terra, keyblade in hand, stealing the princess's heart. Ven staggered back. He pointed to the picture. "Is that really the guy who did it?"

The three fairies nodded.

Ven placed his hand over his heart and silently thought, _That… that's Terra… But why would he do that?_ He glanced at the lifeless, sleeping princess. _No, no, there's got to be another reason for what happened. Terra would never hurt anyone, especially a girl... But Terra hurt Aqua_ , he realized. _I've got to get to the bottom of this. I need to find out what's going on._ Aloud, Ven said, "Then I'm going to help you get the princess's heart back and wake her up!"

"You?" exclaimed Flora. "Why, you're just a kid yourself!"

"I'm not a kid! I'm fifteen! I'll be sixteen in," he counted on his fingers, "nine months."

"Meaning you just turned fifteen, three months ago."

"Well if you want to get all technical…"

Fauna said, "Listen, we don't want to get a child involved in this."

"Maybe I'm just the hero that you're waiting for! Who else is going to show up and help you fix this?" He summoned his keyblade and assumed a fighting stance. "I may be a kid, but I'm a strong kid, and I promised myself that I would become someone who could protect others. When I see this girl, I want to help her."

"You can't help her. We're powerless to do anything."

"No we aren't!" Ven argued. "We can never be too powerless to save our friends! When it comes to friends, anything is possible!" He gritted his teeth. He really wanted to believe that he wasn't powerless to help Terra. He did not want to believe that Terra was too far fallen into the path of darkness.

After all, Terra was Ven's best friend. Ven remembered all the times that the Terra would let Ven sleep in his room after Ven had a nightmare. He remembered how patient Terra was in teaching Ven how to cook. He remembered how Terra would walk him to school, and help him with his homework. Terra taught him to stand up to bullies and to speak up about his emotions. Terra's huge arms were always there to hug him. Terra always seemed like a shield for Ven to lean on whenever Ven was scared.

The Terra that had hurt Aqua, and had allegedly stolen Princess Aurora's heart wasn't the Terra that Ven called his friend. It couldn't have been Terra. It was something else. And Ven was going to stop at nothing to prove that.

Flora sighed. "Listen, Maleficent has Aurora's heart. If we wanted to get it back, we would need to go to her fortress in the forbidden mountains and fight her. But we can't fight Maleficent."

"Why not?"

"Why, she's too powerful!" both Flora and Fauna said in unison.

"I don't care!" Ven shouted. "I don't care at all! I don't care what anyone says, because I'm not about to sit at home and cry when I could go out there and do something to save the people I care about! And that goes for you too! You've got to do something! You've got to do anything! If you wait for someone to save you, then you risk the chance that no one ever will!" The fierce look of determination in his eyes both intrigued and inspired the fairies.

Merryweather shouted, "I agree with this young man! We need to save our dear princess!"

Ven nodded. "Definitely! The four of us together can definitely bully that old witch into returning the princess's heart!" His eyes sparkled with passion. And that passion seeped into the hearts of Flora and Fauna.

They looked to each other, and then nodded. "Alright," Flora said.

"For Aurora," Fauna cheered.

"Let's go!" Merryweather led the way, out of the castle, and towards the badlands surrounding Maleficent's fortress.


	65. Storm the Witch's Keep

It seemed like a good idea at first. Three fairies and a teenage boy. Certainly that was enough to kill a single witch.

No.

Ven was totally wrong.

The road to Maleficent's castle was an uphill trek. Luckily there were no unversed or monsters. Ven was feeling confident. But once they stepped into the fortress, they found it heavily guarded with armored demonic pig-minions, summoned by the witch herself. And they were endless, swarming Ven and the fairies as they tried to get to the center of the lair.

Much worse, the entire castle was a maze. And the doors weren't exactly logical either. Ven found that he could go through the same door, and end up in two different places. "Magical scattering," Flora called it. "That witch enchanted the doors to send you to wherever she wants."

So yeah, that was annoying. Ven spent the entire morning wandering around the castle and fighting Maleficent's minions.

One door led Ven into a room with a sleeping giant warthog. It was the size of a school bus. Fauna whispered, "Let's sneak past it." So they quietly fluttered while Ven tiptoed around the edge of the room, careful not to wake the beast…

Until Ven's phone rang. Maybe the warthog didn't like his ringtone. It awoke, and charged at Ven. The fairies created a magical shield to protect him. The warthog slammed into it, bounced back, flipped over, and slammed into the opposite wall. Ven jumped into the air and finished it off by stabbing it in the belly.

He quietly wished that Maleficent's minions dropped munny like the unversed did. But no, they just screeched like banshees as they died in a puff of black-and-green-smoke.

"Let's go through that hole," Merryweather suggested, rushing through the broken wall. After fighting all the minions in that room, Ven took a moment to sit down against a wall to catch his breath. Then he checked his phone. It was afternoon, and Ven discovered a missed call and a text from Aqua. _Sorry I was asleep. Where are you?_

Ven replied. _I'm in a castle fighting a witch help please its in a world where everyone is asleep don't call it's distracting._

He also texted Terra. _Hi what are you doing? Please call me._

Then he rested for about thirty minutes, while waiting for a response from either of them. Eventually, Flora asked, "Are you too tired to continue? We can abandon this quest."

Ven stood up and shook his head. "No. Let's go."

They fought through more rooms until they found a hall filled with multi-colored glowing mist. The largest, green-colored mist encased a shiny, heart-shaped ball of light. Ven gasped. Merryweather said, "That must be Aurora's heart!"

"How do we free it?" asked Fauna.

"I'll take care of it," Ven said, pointing to the mist with his keyblade. A single blast of light scattered it. The heart, now freed, zoomed through the air, to return to its host.

Ven and the fairies cheered.

Merryweather said, "Now all we need to do is slay Maleficent!"

"You say that as if it is an easy task," Flora and Fauna chided her.

So they trudged onward. Finally, they reached a room one that was devoid of minions. It was a large, circular space, with steps leading down into the center of the room. Pillars that supported nothing were strewn around the room, and in the front stood a throne, raised on a platform.

"This must be her throne room," Fauna said.

They walked around. They kept their guard up.

They heard a voice. "Someone has released Aurora's heart. Tell me child… was it you?"

"Maleficent!" the fairies exclaimed. They looked around. They didn't see her.

Ven yelled, "Only because you stole it in the first place!" He tried to pinpoint the source of the voice. "Show yourself so we can beat you up!"

A wicked cackle cut through the air. "Fufufufufufufu!" The ground shook. Dark essence gathered on the throne. It swirled around until it solidified into a single solid shape, the outline of a woman. "What is this?" asked the witch, sitting on her throne. "You rodents believe you can defeat me? Three impudent fairies, and a human boy with a broken heart?"

"A-a broken heart?" Ven repeated. "What do you mean?"

"It seems that you too wield a keyblade. Such a power would be useful to me. Join me, child, and I shall forgive you for releasing the heart that Terra Smith of Traverse Town worked so hard to get for me."

Ven's body went limp for a brief moment. He dropped his keyblade. "T-terra?"

"Why yes. Do you know him?"

"Terra would never do a thing like that! You liar!"

"Never? Then why did I have it?"

"Shutup!" Ven shouted.

"I am surprised that you have so much spunk, child." The witch swirled her fingers around the green orb atop her staff. "I wonder, how is it possible for a being like you to exist? Is it sheer willpower that keeps you going? Or is it something else? And what of the part of you that is missing? Where is it?"

"I'm giving you until the count of three!"

"Such an interesting pattern. It is as if every single piece of darkness has been carved away from your heart. And what's this? It's a dynamic process. Any little piece that turns foul is chipped away, and sent somewhere else! Interesting!" Maleficent smiled from ear to ear, a grin so horrid that it would make children cry. "I should like to study your heart boy. You could give me clues about making artificial hearts of pure light, rather than wasting my time searching for them."

"One, two," Ven counted.

"Oh, he wants to fight? Very well then. Say it my dear boy."

"Three!" Ven raised his keyblade. "Thunder!"

Lightning burst through the roof, and zapped Maleficent. But she did not flinch. She instead gathered the magic to the tip of her staff, and reflected it back at Ven. He dodged, rolling out of the way. He broke into a run and rushed her from the left side, swinging his blade. She teleported out of the way. Now she was on the other side of the room.

The fairies waved their wands and blasted sparkles at her. Maleficent waved away their attack, as if it was a swarm of gnats. "You imbeciles!" she cackled. "Did you think you could fight me with this pathetic magic of yours? You should stick to gardens and rainbows." She conjured a green mist to entangle the good fairies, trapping them like insects in a spiders' web.

Her distraction with Flora, Fauna and Merryweather allowed Ven to sneak up behind her. BAM! He smacked her on the back of the head with his keyblade. Not once. Not twice. Three, four, five, six, seven-hit-combo, before she turned around and blasted him with green mist. He barely dodged it. Jumping back, he pointed his blade at her. "Fire! Fira! Firaja! Firerarajera!"

She smacked away Ven's fireballs. "How dare you even think your magic compares to mine!" She engulfed herself with green fire, held out her hands, and blasted stream of flames at Ven. He ran, and she followed, setting fire to the stone on the ground. "Unlike your pathetic magic, mine burns as long as I want!" She sprayed fire everywhere, setting fire to the roof and walls, until Ven was trapped against a wall. "I will roast you in my eternal hellflame! Hahaha! Now is your last chance boy! Become my lab rat, or die!"

The problem with fire is that it causes a lot of smoke. Ven couldn't breathe, much less speak. And if he could speak, his final words would have been something like, "Aqua! Terra! Help!" while he passed out.

As he lost consciousness, he thought he heard Aqua's voice shout, "Bubble Beam!"


	66. Chill Phil

"Bubble beam!" Aqua shouted, releasing a flurry of iridescent bubbles that exploded into waves of water, washing away Maleficent's fire.

"What?!" exclaimed the witch, looking up to meet the edge of Aqua's keyblade. Maleficent slammed into the wall, and Aqua surrounded her with a barrier. "WHAT!?" the witch shrieked, pounding against Aqua's magical jail bubble.

"Ven!" Aqua ran to her young friend and lifted him up, laying him on her lap. He was burned all over his face, his clothes were charred. He was breathing unevenly. "Heal!" she said, raising her keyblade. She restored him and his clothes completely. With a couple of blinks, he came to. "A-aqua?"

She hugged him. "Ven!"

He returned the hug, nestling his head against her bosom. "Aqua!"

"Ven!" shouted Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, finally breaking free of the mist and rushing to Ven's aid. They too smothered him with bosom hugs. Ven laughed. "Okay! Okay! I'm fine!" He stood up. "I'm good as new! So let's finish this!" He looked to his left and right. "Huh? Where's Maleficent?"

"Maleficent? Is that her name?" Aqua pointed to where Maleficent should have been. "I trapped her in a barrier."

But Maleficent wasn't there. Aqua jumped up and looked around. "Shit, shit, shit," Aqua swore. "Ven, what's going on?"

"She stole a princess's heart and cursed her to sleep unless we kill her!" Ven said, backing up against Aqua. Together, they scanned the area for signs of Maleficent.

"There sure are a lot of you with that keyblade," said Maleficent's. Although she was nowhere to be seen, Ven, Aqua and the Fairies kept their guard up. "First there was Terra Smith of Traverse town, who so eagerly helped me kill the princess, and steal her heart. Truly a young man with a heart overflowing with darkness."

"What?!" Aqua exclaimed.

Ven screamed, "Lies! She's lying, Aqua!"

"Next there was little Ven, whose poor heart is in shambles."

"Shut up! Show yourself!" shrieked Ven. Aqua said, "Don't let her get into your head, Ven. Calm down."

"Now there's Aqua, a heart of strong light. But it is the strongest lights that burn out quickly. Have you come here to sacrifice your life to save your friend?"

Ven closed his eyes, covered his ears and shouted, "SHUT UP!" That's when Maleficent appeared. She shot a green energy blast at Ven. Aqua blocked it with a barrier, and shouted "Blizzara!" She summoned a glacier of ice where Maleficent was standing. The witch took some damage, before disappearing again. Aqua said, "Ven, you need to get out of here."

"What? And leave you here to fight by yourself?"

The fairies shouted, "Look out!" and neutralized one of Maleficent's energy blasts with their magic. Aqua said, "Yes, I can handle it. Go!"

"No! No way! Aqua she's strong! She's too strong! She'll kill you!"

"Ven you're in my way. Go home. That's an order."

"No!"

"Go!" Aqua demanded. To the fairies, she said, "Please! Get him out of here!"

The fairies hesitated.

Aqua blocked another blast from Maleficent. "GO!"

"Never!" Ven shouted.

"Fine." Flora said. She and the other three fairies waved their wands. Ven was lifted into the air. He shouted, "What? What? No! Put me down! No! Aqua! Aquaaaaaaaaa!" The three flew off, carrying Ven along with them.

Maleficent cackled with laughter. "You really do intend to die here, then?"

Aqua shook her head. "No. I have more than enough power to stop you." Her body began to glow with sparkles of light. Her blue eyes flashed. She assumed her fighting position. "I will never be too weak to protect the ones I love."

Maleficent had never known what fear was. As the strongest witch in this world, perhaps even the entire universe, she had never once felt threatened. She never once considered the possibility of being defeated. But something about this girl, the determination in Aqua's eyes, terrified Maleficent. It felt like someone was choking the witch, because she couldn't bring herself to speak.

In that moment of speechlessness, Aqua appeared in front of her. As Aqua thrust her keyblade through Maleficent's body, the witch thought, _How did she do that? How did she move so fast? This girl really is powerful. Perhaps I should not risk this fight._

Maleficent took the hit. But being impaled was nothing but a scratch. Aqua pulled out the blade and attempted to combo attack, but Maleficent enveloped Aqua in her black cape.

All went dark.

Aqua realized that she was standing in a dungeon, posed to attack a solid cinderblock wall. It was a dark room, lit only by a single candle in the corner. "What the fuck?" she said, lowering her blade. "She teleported me? That bitch!" She stomped her foot. "Am I in a dungeon? Again? That's the second time today! FUCK!"

Someone behind her said, "Um, excuse me, miss? Care to help me?"

Aqua saw a young man, chained to the wall behind her. "A guy in a dungeon, again?" she mumbled. Aloud, she said, "Who are you?"

"I am Prince Phillip. I come from the neighboring kingdom."

"And why are you here?"

"Long story?" he chuckled a little bit, as if trying to lighten the situation. He seemed tired and beat up, but other than a few bruises and scratches, he was in good condition. She could tell that Phillip hadn't been this dungeon for too long. Aqua did the honors of using her keyblade to unlock his chains. The young man stood up, bowed and said, "Thank you Miss. And your name?"

"I'm Aqua. What's going on?"

"I don't quite understand myself. I went to see a girl in the glen last night, and before I knew it, I was attacked and thrown in here."

"A girl in the glen?"

"Yes. I was exploring this kingdom, for I am to wed the princess of this land one day. Then I happened to find the nicest girl in the glen. We sang and danced, and I wanted to see her again. I think I like her more than I would like some stuffy princess."

"Okay. That's nice." She aimed her keyblade at the wall. "Duck and cover dude."

She blasted a hole in the wall, and stepped out of the dungeon. Unfortunately, a bunch of Maleficent's minions were waiting for her. Aqua groaned, "I don't have time for this shit!" She whipped up a tornado to engulf them. Prince Phillip followed Aqua as she marched down the hall. He exclaimed, "My goodness! You are powerful!"

"Yes. Now if you could please run along, I need to slay a witch."

"Slay a witch? Why?"

"I don't know!" Aqua shrugged, threw her hands into the air and said, "I'm really frustrated right now, so if you don't mind—"

"I can help! It's the least I can do to thank you."

"This witch is really powerful."

"I'm pretty strong too. My father is a mage and my mother is a swordswoman."

"If you were so strong, why did you get thrown in a dungeon?"

"I could ask you the same question."

Aqua blushed. "Well at least I got out."

"Yeah, I would have been in a pretty bad situation if not for you." He laughed about it.

"Why are you laughing?"

"Because I'm fine now. Trust me, I wasn't laughing about this earlier."

Aqua sighed. "Fine. Whatever. But don't slow me down. There's something I need to know and Maleficent has the answer."

"Maleficent?!" Phillip took several steps back. "Wait, THE Maleficent? As in the strongest witch in the world? The Queen of Darkness? The woman who has reduced entire kingdoms to rubble on a whim? This is HER fortress?"

Aqua nodded. "I think so."

Phillip rubbed his forehead. "Welp… Guess I'll die." He drew his sword and shield. "Let's do this."

The two charged down the hallway, fighting hordes of minions as they tried to find Maleficent's throne room. Little did they know that Maleficent was perched upon a tower in the distance, watching them the entire time. Aqua and Prince Phil were a pretty good team. Their fighting styles resonated well. Aqua used her magic to attack large groups of enemies at once, while the prince guarded her back, slaughtering anything that dared get too close to her.

They were clearing the castle quicker than Maleficent's pig-demons could regenerate. And that was pissing the witch off. What angered her even more was Aqua's taunting. "Are you too scared to fight, Maleficent? Is this how the Queen of Darkness fights? Hiding behind an army of pathetic little gremlins? Show yourself! Fight me!"

Phillip was getting a bit concerned. "Please don't say that Aqua. She's really strong."

"Well I'm stronger! I can kill her and she knows it! That's why she's hiding!"

"I really am going to die today…" He stabbed a pig-archer in the nose.

"Maleficent, you coward bitch! Show yourself!" Aqua shrieked.

At this point, Maleficent couldn't stand the disrespect any longer. "Foolish girl!" the witch said, appearing in front of them. "How dare you insult me! I will make sure you die slowly and painfully."

"What did you do to Terra?" Her eyes were fierce, but nervous.

Maleficent saw that bit of weakness in Aqua's heart. The weakness for Terra. Perhaps she could use this to lower this girl's resolve? "Nothing, child. I simply asked and he obeyed. It is such a pity that you don't have his talent for obedience."

"Stop lying! Terra would never steal a girl's heart! He would never!"

Maleficent cackled with laughter. "But he did. He so eagerly embraced the darkness in his heart. He truly is a child of the darkness."

Aqua shook her head. "No… he wouldn't." For a brief moment, she was in panic—not a heart-racing type of panic, but the type of muscle-tensing panic that makes your mind, body and soul go numb.

Maleficent conjured up a beam of energy.

"Um, Aqua?" shouted Prince Phillip, who was slicing off the arm of an axe-wielding minion.

"Terra wouldn't…" she mumbled.

Prince Phillip jumped in front of Aqua, using his shield to deflect Maleficent's magic. "Aqua! Head's up!"

She gasped. "Right!" Aqua threw her keyblade at Maleficent, jumped in the air, and then kicked her in the face, while shouting, "Speed Star!" Star-shaped bullets of light crashed through the roof of the fortress and pummeled Maleficent into the ground. Aqua's blade returned to her hand as she bounced off Malefcent's face and landed on the ground a few feet away. "Eruption!"

Aqua opened a hole in the ground beneath Maleficent, from which a fountain of lava spewed, sending bits of molten rock into the air. Phillip freaked out hid behind his shield. "Hey, um, could you not kill me?"

"Sorry," she replied, breathing heavily. He noticed that her magic was getting low, so he cast, "Heal."

"Thanks," she said, feeling refreshed.

"YOU INSOLENT WENCH!" Maleficent screamed, rising from the lava. Red flames and black steam surrounded her as she spread out her arms. "I am Maleficent! I will not be defeated by the likes of you! See for yourself all the powers of hell!" Her figure exploded into a burst of blinding green light, expanding into a black winged dragon. She grew so big that Aqua and the prince had to run out of the way of being squished. Maleficent broke the roof of her fortress, broke the walls, broke the spires. She grew and grew and grew, thirty, forty, fifty feet long.

Aqua and Prince Phil ran out of the fortress just in time, for Maleficent grew bigger than the entire building itself. She stood there, wings flapping, her body radiating green flames. Her roar was deafening. It made Aqua's ears ring, and Phillip was knocked down.

Now it was Aqua's turn to feel scared.


	67. Dragon Born

She was hyperventilating. She was running, ducking, launching whatever feeble attacks she could. "Water! Watera! Wateraga!" she shouted, spraying the dragon with a water gun that was strong enough to tear the roof from a house. But nothing was working.

Maleficent the Dragon slashed at Aqua. The force of the wind knocked the girl into the dirt, skidding for several feet. Maleficent breathed in, and blew out scorching green fire.

Prince Phillip jumped in to save her. He deflected the blast with his shield, pushing against the force of the flames like he was fighting hurricane winds. Maleficent laughed. Then, with another breath, she spewed out fire again. Phillip struggled to contain it. He was being pushed back and pushed down into the ground.

He couldn't hold on forever.

Aqua had to do something. She rose to her feet. She took a deep breath. Touching her hand to her chest, she said, "I need your strength. Everyone. It's the strength of the people I love that keeps me going. Ven. Terra. I'm fighting for you guys."

Her body began to shimmer with white light. Her hair whipped around. Her keyblade glowed white. She held it up in the air. "I'll fight to protect them!"

Her keyblade became enshrouded with light. Her lightblade doubled in size, and kept doubling, exponentially.

It grew and grew and grew, until it touched the dark clouds that swirled in the sky above Maleficent's fortress.

"I'll never let you hurt anyone, ever again!" Aqua screamed as she brought her blade down upon Maleficent.

There was a blinding flash of light, followed by the sharp sound of metal scraping against metal.

Aqua was thrown back, and so was Prince Phil.

Phillip lost consciousness just briefly. He sat up and groaned. His head was spinning, his ears where throbbing, and he felt like throwing up. When he regained his sense of sight, he saw Aqua several feet away, completely knocked out. Bringing himself to his feet, he tried to hurry to her.

Unfortunately, a dragon's foot stomped down in between them. Phillip looked up to see that Maleficent the Dragon had sustained major damage. One of her wings and one of her arms were missing. Her tail was gone. She was oozing green liquid that seemed like blood.

She was dying.

But she wanted to kill Aqua too.

"NO!" Phillip yelled. He couldn't hear himself though, because the ringing in his ears was too intense. Although he wanted to lay on the floor and vomit, he lifted his sword wearily. Maybe if he could land just one hit, he could finish this dragon before she finished Aqua.

Sure his magic wasn't as powerful as this girl's, but he wanted to do something, anything, that could save her.

And he chuckled, because, well, why the hell was he doing this?

But he was. He was doing this. The world was spinning around him, yet he closed one eye and took aim.

He probably didn't hear them, but behind him, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather, the three good fairies, arrived.

After convincing Ven to go home, and ensuring that he truly left, the three fairies hurried back to the fortress to help Aqua. Imagine their surprise when they saw Maleficent, in dragon form, emerge and block out the horizon. They had watched the battle, unsure of what to do to help. Now that Aqua had weakened Maleficent, they were certain of one last way to help.

"All together now," said Flora, as the three of them waved their wands. In unison they chanted, "Now sword of truth, fly swift and sure, that evil die and good endure!" They cast the spell on Phillip's sword as he aimed for the dragon's heart.

The blade zoomed through the sky, like a star falling upward, piercing into the dragon's heart.

With one final roar, the glow in Maleficent's eyes faded. She did not fall. Her body remained eerily still as the life drained away. Her body began to smoke and dissipate. Within one minute, she became nothing but dust and a dragon skeleton.

That was the end of her.

Phillip dropped to his knees. He fell over.

He lay in the dirt, wondering how his normal life had suddenly taken a turn for the supernatural. It had all started yesterday, when his parents insisted that he travel to the neighboring kingdom to meet his future bride, a girl of sixteen who he was to marry in two years.

Phillip didn't necessarily want to be betrothed, so he avoided seeing the princess by hanging out in the glen. There, he found a really nice girl frolicking through flower fields, gathering herbs and berries. She was a little shy at first, but once she realized that he meant no harm, they spent all afternoon talking and dancing and singing their own made-up songs. That was fun. It was really fun. He didn't want to leave her.

But he knew he had to return to the castle to meet his future bride eventually. So he bid her goodbye. She invited him to join her that evening to celebrate her 16th birthday. He said sure.

So he went to the castle. There were festivities. The King and Queen entertained him and told him to await the arrival of the princess. She was off doing something or another, the King and Queen happily said, but she would definitely arrive tonight to see him. However, Phillip preferred to go visit the nice girl in the glen, so he snuck off to find her again.

He arrived at a small house in that little narrow valley. But it was empty. Or so he thought. It was then that he was ambushed by a horde of pig-monsters and locked into that dungeon.

Phillip awoke with a start. He was in a bed. It was quiet. His head wasn't spinning and he wasn't in pain. And she was at his side. The girl from the glen. She was smiling. He too, smiled. "I guess I died, and went to heaven," he mumbled.

"Oh no you are very much alive," the girl told him. Then she shouted, "He's awake! Flora, Fauna, Merryweather!"

Prince Phillip grunted. He sat up. He felt completely fine. It was as if he hadn't just helped a powerful mage lady slay a dragon. "I'm not in heaven? Then where am I?"

"You're safe dear," said Flora. "We've healed you and let you rest in the castle."

Fauna added, "We saw how brave you were! Thank you for slaying that witch."

Phillip nodded. "You're welcome. But I only helped. There was another girl who did most of the work." He looked around. "Where is she?"

Merryweather said, "Oh she already left. She said she had other things to do."

"She left?"

Fauna explained, "But don't worry. We healed her, and explained everything to her. She also explained everything to us, Prince Phillip."

"Oh… Alright then." He pouted. "She could have at least said bye…" Phillip looked at the blonde girl. "Hello Miss. I believe we've met before."

Aurora nodded. "Yes. In the glen."

Merryweather, Flora and Fauna gasped. "Really?"

Aurora nodded. "It was the day of my birthday. The afternoon before you told me of my secret identity."

Phillip repeated, "Secret identity?"

Aurora nodded. "It seems that I am the Princess of this Land."

Phillip smiled.


	68. From Ventus Riven

Terra sat against a rocky formation in the arid Keyblade Graveyard. He was solemn, his head hung low, silently morning the lives of the two teenage girls he had played a role in murdering. There was a cloud of darkness radiating off of him. It was like smoke from a car exhaust, but darker and thicker. It clung to him like a snake, wrapping around his arms, caressing his chest, choking his throat.

He had been sitting there, listless, for a long time, when Master Xehanort arrived via teleportation circle, using the lanes of darkness between the worlds. The old man was surprised to see him. "Young Terra!" Xehanort exclaimed, placing a hand on his chest. It had been a long time since he had been startled like that. "What brings you to this graveyard?"

Terra was lost in his own thoughts. He did not even notice Xehanort.

"Young Terra?"

This time Terra heard. He looked up. He mumbled, "Master Xehanort?"

Xehanort noticed the clouds of darkness gathering around Terra. It brought a smile to his face—a smile he quickly hid in favor of a forced look of concern. "My boy, what seems to be the matter?"

"Darkness…" Terra shook his head. "I've made too many mistakes."

Xehanort sat down beside Terra. "Well you made the correct choice in coming here. In fact, I was just about to call out to you, to beckon you to me. I see the darkness in your heart getting stronger."

Terra winced. His eyes began to water. "What is wrong with me?" he whimpered.

"Nothing. Nothing is wrong with you. In fact, this is a good thing. Perhaps you can learn to focus that dark power for good use."

"Darkness? For good use?"

"Everyone has a bit of darkness in their heart, Terra. And those that use the power of darkness for good surpass even the title of Master. If you can channel your dark power for good, then you are a Master in my eyes."

"A master… What do you mean?"

"Can you prove to me that you are worthy of the title of Master, Terra?"

He shook his head. "Master Xehanort, you don't understand. I messed up. I hurt people. I hurt Aqua, the girl in the tower, the girl in the woods, and the Queen of the Woodlands!"

"All necessary sacrifices in your quest to control your dark power."

Terra wasn't feeling so good about this conversation. "I… I don't understand… sacrifices?"

"There is a much larger threat that is affecting our universe, Terra. Many more lives will be lost if you don't become stronger, strong enough to defeat the being of pure evil that is determined to destroy all traces of light."

"What? What threat? Is this about the unversed?"

"Much worse Terra. Much worse." Xehanort sighed. "And it is all my fault, I am afraid to say." Terra was now fully alert. He listened eagerly. Xehanort continued, "I am a foolish old man. I made a grave error one day, an error that was much worse than whatever it was that you have done. It was three years ago. My student—my precious student—was a bright-eyed boy named Ventus."

"Ven was your student?" Terra had suspected something like that. After all, wasn't it Xehanort who had brought Ventus to stay with Eraqus that day? Terra began to remember his first encounter with Ven. The boy was unresponsive to basic questions, and fell into a coma after Terra kept asking. Ven's eyes were dull, his memory was lost, and his behavior was immature and defensive. It took a long time for Ven to become the Ven that he is now.

"Yes, Ventus was my student. In fact, I loved him as my own son. I trained him in the ways of the keyblade. We were happy. But then, one day I mentioned to him about the Mark of Mastery. A grave mistake. He was only twelve years of age, but he became determined to prove to me that he was worthy. He became so obsessed with it that he began to seek the powers of darkness to become strong enough to reach the Mark."

Terra's eyes widened.

"Yes, poor Ventus fell into the darkness. It overcame him. It swallowed him whole, drowning out all but a faint bit of light in his heart. He was not strong enough to control the power. He was not strong like you, Terra. I watched in horror as the darkness threatened to destroy my son. I couldn't bear to lose him, Terra. So in order to save my boy, I was forced to make a rash and dangerous decision. I decided to split his heart in two. I separated the darkness from the light. The light is the Ventus that you know. I sent him to live with Eraqus for his own safety. The dark is a vicious creature, a being of pure malice and malevolence. I named him Vanitas."

"Vanitas…"

"I watched over Vanitas for years, hoping that one day Ventus would become strong enough to destroy him. Alas, Vanitas become stronger and stronger, until finally he broke away from my grasp. Now he is traveling around the worlds, releasing chaos, creating monsters to attack innocents."

"The unversed," Terra interjected.

"Yes. Vanitas is the source of the unversed. He is an abomination beyond all hope of salvation, a merciless villain that will not rest until he plunges all worlds into darkness. He hates all light and longs to see a world without it."

"No…"

"But Terra, I believe that you can stop Vanitas. Using your powers of darkness to fight darkness, you can save us all!"

"But what if I am overcome? Like Ven was?"

"Nonsense. Your heart is the strongest heart that I have ever encountered. So I believe you should give in to the darkness. Use it, embrace it, channel it. Allow it to fill you up and guide you. Once you have become one with the darkness, you shall be able to destroy Vanitas. And then I will award you with the Mark of Mastery."

Terra shook his head. "Give in to the darkness? That's the opposite of what Master Eraqus taught me."

"Eraqus has his own ways. And I have tried those ways, in order to stop Vanitas. You must understand me when I say that I believe nothing but darkness can defeat this being. Terra, you are the only one capable of giving in completely to the darkness without losing your will."

"I… I don't… I don't know…"

"I can see it now. I see the clouds around your heart. Let them become a thick curtain. Let them become a solid wall. Wall your heart in darkness Terra."

Frankly, the idea just didn't make sense to Terra. It just didn't. But why would Master Xehanort steer Terra wrong? After all, this man was Master Eraqus's friend, right? "A-alright then," Terra agreed. "I'll… I'll learn to use the powers of darkness. I'll do it to save the worlds."

"Very good. But, alas, there are many who would think my methods rash and unwise. Eraqus for instance, might caution you against it."

Terra nodded. "Of course."

"Perhaps your friend, Master Aqua, would as well."

Hearing her name, _Master_ Aqua, irritated him. Terra didn't want to feel irritated by that, but he did. "Yeah…" He felt his heart tense as it filled with more darkness. He clutched his chest.

"Give in to it," Xehanort told him.

"Right…" But it didn't feel good to be so jealous of Aqua. He wanted to be happy for her. She deserved the Mark, after all. She had worked hard to earn it. She had kept her calm during that fight when all he wanted to do was hurt her. He breathed heavily. This part of him was terrifying. He wanted to lock it up and never see it again. He couldn't do this. "I-I can't do this."

"Why are you afraid, Terra?"

"I don't want to hurt anyone. I don't want to hurt Aqua." He gripped his own arms tighter.

Xehanort could barely hide his enjoyment of this scene. "Well, as I was saying, it is best to avoid mentioning our plan to Eraqus or Master Aqua—or Ventus as well. Who knows how the boy will react upon hearing that I caused such a terrible thing to happen to him?"

Terra nodded.

"Terra, become one with the darkness. Destroy Vanitas. That is the exam I give you for the Mark of Mastery."

"Yes Master Xehanort."

"I suspect that Vanitas will be drawn to the light, like a moth to a flame. I suspect that he will go next to the city of light, Radiant Garden. I suggest you start looking for him there. He takes the shape of a boy around Ven's age, and wears a mask and red-and black clothing. There will be no mistaking him when you see him."

"Yes Master Xehanort." Terra didn't move.

"Well, go then."

Terra slowly pulled himself together. "Okay. Yes." He stood up. "Okay."

Xehanort watched as the shaken young man armored up, opened a portal and flew away. He then laughed so hard that he began to wheeze. Upon catching his breath, he said, "It is most amusing to watch the corruption of a decent heart." He walked away into the darkness.

As Terra made his way to Radiant Garden, he seriously began to doubt if what Xehanort said was true. "Fight darkness with darkness? That doesn't make any sense. But… is it really the only way? He wouldn't lie to me, right? I don't like feeling like this. Maybe if I find Vanitas and see for myself how strong he really is, then I'll know what to do."

He leaned forward on his motorbike glider and zoomed toward Radiant Garden.

Meanwhile, Aqua just so happened to be leaving the Enchanted Dominion.

The fairies had told her all about Aurora's curse, and Maleficent's evil deeds. They had also shown her their story-book-like recollection of the man that had stolen Aurora's heart.

It was definitely Terra.

That was shocking.

Shocking enough to spur her into action. Aqua realized that in order to save her friend, she seriously had to do something, and quickly. So she thanked them and hurried off to search for Terra, before he wreaked even more havoc.

She was wandering around the lanes between, thinking about where Terra might go next, when she happened to see him zoom by. "Terra!" she shouted, as she followed him.


	69. Mickey Joins the Brawl!

When the fairies carried Ven away with their floating magic, he was fussing and fighting to break free, to return to Aqua, to help her. "No, let me go!" Ven screamed.

"Ventus," Flora finally yelled. "It is not safe for you! You aren't strong enough!"

"Not by myself! And neither is Aqua! But together, we can save Aurora! I know it!"

Fauna insisted, "Then we'll help her. We'll help Aqua to fight Maleficent."

"No! I'm going to help her!"

Merryweather said, "Ven, I think you should listen to Aqua."

He hadn't expected Merryweather to be on their side. "What?"

"Maleficent was getting into your head and messing with you. If you kept fighting, then Aqua would have to protect you while fighting Maleficent."

Ven lowered his head. "So I'm just a burden?"

"No! Not a burden," Fauna insisted. "In fact, I think you are the source of her strength."

"Her source of strength?"

Flora nodded. "Yes. I could see the fire in her eyes. She loves you very much, Ven."

He smiled.

Merryweather asked, "Who is she anyway? Your girlfriend?"

"Ew," Ven retorted. "No way. She's like family."

Flora said, "She told you to go home Ven. So please go home. We'll take care of her. We'll make sure she's safe."

Ven hesitated. "But I can fight! I'm not useless. I can protect her. Since I know that Maleficent was trying to psych me out, I'll just ignore her."

"Ven, the longer you argue with us, the more delayed we are in fighting Maleficent."

By now, they were far away from Maleficent's castle. They were by the edge of the badlands. The fairies set Ven down on the ground. "Now go home," they told him in unison.

He ignored them and bolted toward the path to Maleficent's castle. They grabbed him with magic and set him back. "Ventus, go home," they told him.

He kept running.

They kept dragging him back.

They kept at that game of tug-of-war until Ven started to cry. "I have to help her! I have to help her!" he screamed. "I can't lose her! I can't lose her or Terra! I can't handle that! I don't want to be alone! I can't be alone again!"

"Tears won't work," Fauna said.

"Nope, it won't," Flora agreed.

"OOOOOH," Merryweather groaned. "They work on me!" She grabbed Ven in a hug. "Just go home Ven. Everything will be okay. We promise!" Flora and Fauna joined in the hug. When they released him, they wiped his face. "Go home," they all told him.

"Fine." He forced a smile. "Aqua's too strong to be killed by a dumb old witch anyway."

"That's the spirit."

"Okay." He activated his armor. "Okay… I'll come back one day. And it'll be for something fun, okay?"

They nodded. He opened a portal. He threw his keyblade to become his glider. He jumped onto it. He hesitated one last time. Then he zoomed into the space between worlds.

Ven felt this intense pressure in his chest, like his heart was doubling in size, about to explode. He started to hyperventilate. He began to feel faint. He felt like he was spinning. He couldn't think straight.

"Having a panic attack?" someone said. The voice was familiar. He saw the masked boy, flying right beside him. Just flying. No glider. Just himself. Ven was breathing too quickly to speak. He closed his eyes in a vain effort to stop the world from shaking.

"Oh a really bad one. Why don't I help you out?" Vanitas made a fist and punched Ven so hard that he fell.

Ven crashed on a world with a dusty, rocky landscape. He lay there on the ground, breathing heavily for a few minutes. Thanks to his armor, he was unharmed, except for the mental shock of the impact. "Did I seriously just fall out of the sky?" Ven asked himself.

It was quiet here. Quiet enough for Ven to get his mind straight. "I'll go home and get Master Eraqus," Ven said. "Yeah, and then we'll go get Aqua, and together we can all look for Terra. That makes more sense, right?" Ventus sat up. "That's what I'll do."

"Hahaha." Someone laughed at him. Ven didn't want to turn around. "I'm imagining you," Ven told himself. "I'm imagining you."

"How can I be fake when I pushed you out of the sky?"

"I fell. I fell out of the sky because I was having a panic attack."

"I pushed you out of the sky, Venny."

"You're just a figment of my imagination."

"No. I am a manifestation of your darkness, Ventus," Vanitas explained, kneeling behind Ven. He whispered into Ven's ears. "I am everything you fear, you suppress, you forget. I am the deepest, darkest, scariest part of your being. Do you think it's fair, Venny, that you dump all that shit on me, for me to deal with?"

Ven covered his ears. "Stop it. Stop listening to this. You know it's not real."

"Stop saying that I'm not real," Vanitas whispered. "I am real. I'm real because of the very fact that you don't want me to be real. You can't accept that all of the horrible things in your past actually happened. But they did happen. That's why I'm real."

"It's not real," Ven said, standing up and walking away. "None of this is real. It's not happening."

"Stop making me the victim of your escapist tendencies! You're a fucked up kid! Just accept it!" He summoned his keyblade, and got into a fighting stance. "Stop trying to forget me, Venny! That's the reason why I exist. And I'm going to make you suffer as much as I have." He rushed toward Ven.

"You're a figment of my imagination," Ven whispered to himself. "You can't hit me. You're not real."

But Vanitas was in fact very real. And the attacks that he landed on Ven's body really hurt. He kicked Ven in the gut, smacked him across the face with his keyblade, and headbutted him. Ven crumpled to the ground.

"This can't be real," Ven told himself, curling into fetal position. "Stop imagining this. Wake up. You're asleep, Ventus. That's what you are. Asleep…"

Vanitas stomped on Ven's back. "Stop pretending that I'm not real!" he shouted. He stomped on Ven again. "Do you know how that feels?" He stopped and stomped and stomped on Ven. "Don't you understand that the pain doesn't just magically go away? The more you suppress, the more I need to fight!" Tears welled up in Vanitas's eyes. "The pain that you chose to ignore, I have to fight it! And I can't handle it anymore! I'm going insane!" He kicked Ven in the side so hard that Ven rolled over, facing up.

Vanitas reached over and yanked Ven up by the collar of his shirt. "Just admit it! You're a fucked up little kid! We're both fucked up little kids! We're fucked up to the point where we can create an endless amount of monsters from our feelings! Ven! Just admit it! We're fucked up!"

Ven refused to look at the Masked Boy. "You're not real," Ven mumbled.

Vanitas tossed Ven onto the floor. "Okay, you're gonna die. That's the only way to free me from your hell!" Pointing his keyblade at Ven, Vanitas charged up a blast of darkness at the tip of his blade. "I'll end our suffering."

"STOP!" shouted a small little mouse as he sprinted toward Vanitas. Keyblade in hand, he smacked Vanitas's blade away from Ven. This mouse was none other than Mickey, the former bumbling apprentice of Master Yen Sid. Vanitas jumped backwards. Mickey shouted, "Heal!" and cast a healing spell on Ven.

Now Mickey turned his attention to Vanitas. "What's going on?" Mickey asked.

"So you would charge into battle before you know what was happening?" the masked boy questioned. "What if that kid is the bad guy? Huh?" Vanitas pointed to Ven. "What if he's been hurting me for years now?"

Mickey turned to glance at Ven. "Um…" While the mouse was distracted, Vanitas rushed at him. Mickey was able to deflect the blow, and push Vanitas back several feet. "Hey! No fair!" Mickey yelled.

"All is fair in love and war," Vanitas said as he lounged toward Mickey.

Mickey jumped onto Vanitas's head and jumped off, sending Vanitas tumbling onto the ground. "Stop it! You aren't supposed to bully people with the keyblade!" Mickey shouted, as he proceeded to bully Vanitas with his keyblade.

By now, Ven had somewhat regained his senses. He sat up and rubbed his forehead as he watched Mickey battle Vanitas. At a point, Vanitas hit Mickey so hard that the mouse tumbled and rolled in the dirt. He ended up next to Ven. And Ven asked, the little mouse, "Can you can see him too?"

Mickey stood up. "Uh…" Mickey faced Vanitas. "I'm pretty sure I can." He faced Ven again. "Yeah."

"Then he _is_ real?" Ven mumbled.

Mickey once again turned to face Vanitas. "Uh… I think so," said the mouse. "Yeah."

Ven stood up. "So I'm not crazy, huh?"

A wicked laugh escaped from Vanitas's mouth. "Hahahahaha! You finally get it, Ven!" the Masked Boy declared. "I'm real! This part of you is real!" He spread his arms up toward the sky, "Thank you! Thank you for granting the wish of your humble servant! What's that? Now I must go? Fine then." He bowed to Ven and Mickey. "I only do as She requests, so now I bid you adieu."

With a snap of his fingers, he opened up a dark portal and hopped backward into it, disappearing into nothingness.

Mickey, astonished, turned to Ven and stammered, "W-wh-what just happened?"

"I don't know," was Ven's quiet reply.

"You okay?"

Ven nodded. "Thanks to you. I don't know what I would have done if you didn't show up."

"Aw, no problem," Mickey said. "In fact, I didn't actually mean to show up here. Haha, it was an accident." From his pocket, the mouse pulled out a star-shaped stone. "I borrowed this star shard from my former master, Yen Sid, and I'm using it to travel around and fight the Unversed. But I don't really know how it works, so I'm just kinda going with the flow of whatever happens. Haha."

"You're fighting the unversed?"

Mickey nodded. "Yup. They're like little bits of negative emotions shaped like monsters… or something like that. Again, I'm not really sure. I'm just trying to help out, you know?"

"Well you really helped me. Thanks." He shook Mickey's hand. "I'm Ventus. You can call me Ven for short."

"I'm Mickey!" Mickey chimed. "I guess you can call me Mick for short. Haha, I'm kinda short. Haha." Mickey laughed, as if he had discovered the funniest thing in the world. Ven laughed as well. They were too busy having a good time to notice that the star-shard had started glowing. Before they knew it, they were teleported away.


	70. Call Me Maybe

"Mickey?" Ven shouted. He looked to his left. He looked to his right. "Miiiiickeeeey?" No sign of the mouse. "Ugh," Ven groaned. "What should I do now? Should I go home?" He checked his phone. It had 10 percent battery power. "I should probably go home… But what about that guy that attacked me? He was real. Will he attack me again?" He sighed. "What should I do?"

Suddenly, Ven heard a piercing scream, "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!" A stampede of people ran through the streets. An enormous unversed was chasing them. "I can't catch a fucking break!" the boy swore as he summoned his keyblade and ran after it.

"I haven't been here in years," Aqua said as she deactivated her armor. "Radiant Garden hasn't changed a bit… I should stop by the family mansion later…" She walked around. "I wonder where Terra landed…" She pulled out her cell phone to call him. He didn't answer. Frowning, she was about to put her phone away when Rio called, yet again. "I should answer this," Aqua decided. But before she could, but she heard screams. Turning around, she saw an unversed the size of a small car zipping around above the city streets. "What the hell?" She chased after it.

Terra was walking around Radiant Garden. "The city of light," he thought to himself. It seemed that way. Little kids were playing jump rope or tag or hopscotch or hide-and-seek in the streets. Old men sat on the porches of their townhouse style homes, chatting about the good ol' days. Teens walked around, holding shopping bags or eating ice cream. It was a tranquil little place.

Terra felt his phone buzz. He pulled it out of his pocket and checked to see who it was.

Aqua.

He let it ring as he debated whether to answer it. "What would I even say? She's gonna yell at me…" He let it ring for too long, and the phone cut off. He was about to put his phone back in his pocket, but he received another call. This time, it was from his mother. He couldn't ignore this.

"Hello?" Terra said, putting in a BluTooth headset in his ear, so that he could talk hands-free.

"Terra!" said his mother on the other line. "How are you?"

"Um, I'm pretty good," he lied.

"Don't lie to me," she replied. "You didn't call after the exam. That was Saturday morning, right? It's Monday evening now."

Terra winced. "Yeah."

"What happened Sweetheart? Did you pass?"

"Um…" That's when he saw a giant unversed traveling through the sky. "Oh shit," he whispered. Aloud, he said, "Um, Mom, can I call you back?"

"No. Dreterran Ryusuke Smith, you answer me right now! Did you or did you not pass?"

Terra groaned and ran after the unversed. "I didn't. I didn't earn the Mark of Mastery."

He heard his mother sigh massively. "Oh…" she said. Her voice became faint, as if she had covered the mouthpiece of her phone and held it away from her face. "Devonte! Devonte, Dear, he didn't pass!"

"No! Mom! Don't tell Dad!"

The unversed ducked behind some buildings. He dashed down the street to follow it. Meanwhile, he heard a wisp of his father's voice. "What? He didn't earn the Mark of Mastery?"

"No!" his mom shouted. "Our poor boy must be heartbroken!"

"Is that why he didn't call? Did he think we'd be disappointed?" His father's voice grew closer. "Let me talk to him."

"Let me finish speaking to him first," his mother said. "Terra? Terra it's okay. Sometimes things don't go as planned. Don't get all upset over it."

"I'm not upset!" Terra shouted as he ran through the crowds of the city, chasing after the Unversed.

"Oh Dear, he's very upset," his mother said. She handed the phone to Terra's father.

"Terra, my boy," his father said through the phone. "What's going on?"

"Actually, I'm in the middle of a chasing something," Terra panted.

"Good. Walk and talk. That'll help you clear your mind."

Terra jumped over an ice-cream cart. "I'm actually running right now."

"Even better. Tell me what's up."

Terra had chased the unversed to the city's reactor core. It was trapped, so he summoned his keyblade. "Well it's a long story," Terra began. He was surprised to see both Aqua and Ven arrive there as well, each chasing a similar, giant unversed. Their reunion was bittersweet, though, because the three pieces of unversed linked together to form one giant, plus-ultra, mega-supreme unversed.

I'm listening," said Terra's father.

Terra jumped into the air and slashed the unversed's body. "Everything was going well, but suddenly my heart got overwhelmed with darkness, and I ended up hurting the person I was sparring against during the test."

"Who were you sparring against?"

Terra rammed his blade through a section of its arm. "… Aqua."

Speaking of Aqua, she was attacking one of its legs. Ven was pummeling its head with a fever pitch of strikes. It shot a beam of energy at Ven, knocking him to the ground.

"Ven!" Aqua shouted. "I told you to go home! Why aren't you home?!"

"I was going home but…" Ven paused. "I decided to stay! I'm gonna fight beside you two!" He stood up and dusted himself off. Even though Aqua treated him like a kid, Ven knew that he wasn't one anymore. He could fight too! And he was going to take care of this. He was going to save Aqua and Terra. He threw himself at the unversed and swung his keyblade with all his might. "Take this!" Ven shouted. "And this!" He swung his blade again. "And this!" Another swing.

The unversed launched both of its arms in a rocket punch at him. Ven blocked. Aqua jumped in front of him and used bind magic to tie the unversed's arms together. She then cloaked her keyblade in thunder and slashed at the unversed. Then she shot fireballs at it to distract it. "Ven, run away—"

Aqua saw Ven running away from the battle scene. She exhaled with relief. Her reflexes alerted her that something was attacking. She blocked the attack with her keyblade, but was thrown back several feet into the air. With a summersault, she corrected herself so that she could jump off a wall and thrust through the creature with a thunder strike. "Charge Rush!" Aqua shouted. She landed on her feet, panting heavily. She raised her keyblade, "Bliza—" she began. But her cellphone rang.

She guessed that it was her older brother, Rio. "Blizaraga!" she shouted. She was able to freeze both of the monster's legs. And she quickly answered her phone, "Hi Big Bro, I know I haven't been answering your calls, but I'll call you back in just a second. I'm in the middle of something right now."

"Oh, sorry," said Rio via phone. "I don't mean to bother you. I just wanted a quick update about your exam. You didn't tell me anything. Wasn't it two days ago?"

"Yeah it was," Aqua answered as she blocked a rocket punch from the unversed. "It's been hectic since then, so I've been— HOLY SHIT! TERRA WATCH OUT!"

Terra barely dodged out of the way of a laser beam. Rio asked, "Is everything okay, Sis?"

"Rio, I'll call you right back!" and she hung up. She ran to Terra. "Terra! You okay?"

Terra nodded and pointed to his ear. He was wearing a headset, and whispered, "I'm on the phone."

She was annoyed. He tackled her out of the way of an attack from the Unversed. Together they rolled a few feet before hopping up and resuming their fighting positions. He said, "Yeah, but I could always take it again, Dad. I don't want to give up." He rushed the enemy and struck it with an uppercut. Aqua shouted, "Fire!" and blasted it with several fireballs.

"Well I know that I've been doing this for a few years, and that's exactly why I want to try again," Terra said.

Aqua looked at him. His expression was fraught with worry. He seemed extremely tense, and she could tell that it wasn't from the battle. "Terra," she muttered.

"Yeah, but," Terra said, "it's not like… But… Ugh, can I talk to Mom, please? I know she'll be on my side." He jumped high into the air and slammed his keyblade on the unversed. "Yeah, Mom, do you know the situation?" Terra stopped moving. His face looked pained. "But… but Mom…"

The unversed charged up an attack and aimed for Terra. He was too wrapped up in his phone call to notice. So Aqua jumped in and used "Reflect!" magic to block it.

"Yeah…" Terra mumbled.

Aqua raised her keyblade, and bolts of lightning erupted from the sky, striking the unversed.

"I see…" Terra mumbled.

Aqua really wanted to tell him to focus on the task at hand, but he seemed to having an equally intense argument with his parents over the phone. She was so distracted by him, though, that she didn't notice that the unversed was charging a laser beam, aiming right at her.

Luckily Ven returned to the battle right in time to push her out of the way. "Aqua! Heads up!"

"Right, sorry." She started fighting again. "Where'd you go Ven?"

After the unversed had knocked Ven down the second time, Ven's phone had started to ring. He was actually quite surprised, because the only person who ever actually _called_ him on the phone was Aqua. Yet, Aqua was right beside him, battling. So of course he had to check to see who it was. It was Olette. And Ven got sort of worried. Why would Olette call him? She usually texts. So he decided to run away briefly so that he could talk to her. "Hello?"

"Ven? Are you okay?" she asked. She sounded worried.

"Yeah. I'm fine."

"You didn't come to school today."

"Oh, yeah, school," he said. "Yeah. What do you want? I'm kind of busy."

"I was just worried," she told him. "I guess I just wanted to hear your voice to make sure you're okay."

"Yeah I'm fine. Don't worry about me."

"Okay… um… well I took notes for you."

"Cool, thanks."

"And you're still joining the student council, right?"

"Yup," he answered. "As soon as I get back."

"Get back? Where are you?"

"I'm actually in another world right now."

"What? You didn't tell me."

"I don't need to tell you everything I do," he retorted. "Stop bothering me."

"Am I seriously bothering you?" she asked.

Ven ruffled his hair and blushed. "Jeez, Olette, you know I'm just kidding. I'm happy you called."

"Oh. That's good. Thanks for answering. I guess I'll see you in school tomorrow?"

"Uh… maybe?"

"Oh. Well then I guess I'll call you back later."

"Alright. Bye." And he hung up. "Ugh, girls are so troublesome." And he had returned to the battle once more.

So that's where he had gone. But he told Aqua, "None of your business! Focus on the fight!" Ven jumped into the air. "Terra! Aqua! Let's end this!"

Ven slashed the unversed.

Terra and Aqua jumped into the air and teamed up to deal a finishing blow.

The unversed exploded into munny, which Ven excitedly picked up. "Munny!" he cheered. Aqua laughed. Terra chuckled as well and said, "Ven is so adorable. Oh, no I wasn't talking to you Mom." He turned away. "I was listening to you and I understand. I'll think about it and talk to you later. Kay? Bye… I love you too Mom... yes hugs and kisses and all that… Okay, okay, okay, I'm hanging up the phone now. Bye."

He pressed a button on his headset. Then he took it out of his ear and sighed.

He realized that Aqua and Ven were staring at him.

He returned the stare.


	71. Again and Again

Ven decided to break the awkward silence. "We make a great team!" he cheered.

Neither Terra nor Aqua replied. They were too busy eyeing each other.

Ven became discouraged, but he continued to talk. "The three of us together are unbeatable! In fact, we should all go fight the unversed together. That would make sense, right?" His eyes darted back and forth between Aqua and Terra. "Because we're going to be friends, forever," he added, desperately, "and nothing is going to tear us apart! In fact, we're more than friends!" He walked toward Terra and gripped Terra's shirt. "We're like family, right Terra? You're like a dad to me." He turned to Aqua. "And Aqua's definitely my mom. And Master Eraqus is the lazy grandpa. But that's fine, because we all love each other." He tugged tightly on Terra's shirt. "You love her, right? Tell her that you love her."

Terra was silent. He broke eye contact with Aqua and stared at the ground.

Ven leaned against Terra. "Please! Stop acting like this! Both of you! I can't stand it!" He stomped on the ground. "I don't want anyone to get hurt. I don't want to lose you both! What would I do without you?"

Terra sighed. Aqua stooped down and stroked Ven's hair. "You won't lose us," Aqua told him. "Why do you think that?"

Ven shook his head as he admitted, "There was a boy in a mask. He told me that—"

"You met the boy in the mask?" Terra asked.

Ven nodded.

"Vanitas…" Terra grumbled.

"Vanitas?" Ven mumbled. For some reason, the name sounded familiar to him.

"Vanitas?" Aqua repeated. "Who's Vanitas?"

"Master Xehanort said…" he hesitated. Master Xehanort hadn't wanted him to tell Ven or Aqua.

Aqua asked, "You found Master Xehanort? When? Where? What did he say?"

"Never mind. I need to do this on my own." Terra began to walk away. "Ven, go home. You too, Aqua. I can take care of this."

"Take care of what?" Aqua asked. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't worry about it. Just go home. Tell Master Eraqus that I found Master Xehanort and I'm doing something to help him."

"No, Terra, we were supposed to do this together."

"I can handle this!"

"No you can't! You can't handle anything! You should go home before you hurt anyone else!"

Terra was taken aback. Ven jumped to his defense. "Aqua! How could you say that?"

She leered at Terra. "I've been to the same worlds as you, Terra. And you're fucking things up, phenomenally."

"Aqua!" Ven exclaimed.

Terra tried to defend himself. "I… I…No, Aqua, I haven't!"

"You haven't? Really? What about stealing that girl's heart?"

Ven spoke up, "Maleficent was lying! Terra would never do something like that. Right?" A brief glance at Terra prompted the boy to think otherwise. "Terra? You wouldn't, right?"

"It wasn't my fault," Terra mumbled. "I wasn't myself. There was an evil lady who put a spell over me."

"So… you did?" Ven asked.

Terra remained silent.

Aqua probed further, "What about poisoning the little girl with the dwarves in the Woodlands? And then attempting to murder the Queen?"

Ven jumped in, "Little girl with the dwarves? Snow White? Terra, did you hurt Snow?!"

"I didn't mean to do that!" Terra insisted. "I didn't mean to do any of that! And I wanted to fix my mistakes, but I couldn't!"

Aqua closed her eyes and shook her head.

Ven seemed horrified.

Terra shouted, "You need to believe me!"

Aqua said, "That girl got her heart back, the other girl woke up and is fine, and the queen is healed. I fixed everything."

An exhale of relief escaped Ven's mouth. "That's good."

Terra kept silent.

Aqua became even more frustrated, "Terra, why haven't you been answering my calls or my texts? Why have you been avoiding me? What's going on?"

Terra kept silent.

"So you don't have anything else to say, Terra?"

"What do you want me to say?"

"There are a lot of things I want you to say." She placed her hands on her chest and looked to the ground.

"Aqua, I…" He rubbed his hands along his face in frustration. "I need to learn how to control the darkness. I need it to become stronger. I can use it for good."

Aqua shook her head. Then she shot him with a look of disgust that nearly shattered his already weakened heart. "What the hell are you talking about Terra? You _need_ the darkness? What the hell is wrong with you?"

"You don't understand," Terra began. He took a few steps closer to her. "My heart is strong. I won't give in to it. I can use it for good. I can channel the darkness to get stronger."

She looked up at him, angrily. "No wonder you didn't earn the Mark of Mastery."

Terra seized her throat. Wild-eyed, he lifted her up, and shouted, "You don't understand anything!"

"Terra! Terra! TERRA!" Ven shrieked. Aqua tried to break free. Terra tightened his grip.

Aqua's face turned red. She squeezed her eyes shut. She kicked her legs and clawed at his hands. He wouldn't let go. Ven tried to pry his fingers off of Aqua's neck. "TERRA! TERRA! STOP! STOP!" he screamed. But Ven couldn't break his grip. Aqua's face turned blue.

Out of desperation, Ven summoned his keyblade.

Ven slashed Terra on the side. He released Aqua and staggered back. Ven, in fighting position, braced himself to fight his best friend. Luckily, Terra regained his senses. Seeing Aqua on the ground, he mumbled, "No! No! Not again!" Terra sprinted away.

Aqua gasped for air. Ven hugged her. "I won't let him hurt you," he told her, sobbing. She breathed deeply for a few minutes. Once she calmed down, she stroked his hair and mumbled, "I'm fine. I'm fine. Thanks Ven." She didn't seem fine. Her voice was raspy. She was definitely in pain. She cast, "Heal," on herself. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. "This is getting out of hand. You should go home."

"No," Ven shouted, embracing her tightly. He nuzzled his head into her bosom. "The boy in the mask, Vanitas or whatever, told me that Terra was going to leave me—and take you too! Dead or alive! I'm really freaking out, Aqua! I'm really freaking out! I can't lose you and Terra! I can't!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Before all this started a boy in a mask appeared in my room—he's the reason why I left, the reason why I didn't go home. I don't know what's going on. I'm really freaking out."

Aqua hadn't realized the emotional toll that this entire situation was having on Ven. He was shuddering and crying. She needed to calm him down. "If it'll make you feel better, why don't you come along with me, then? Let's do that, okay? Shh, stop crying."

It took a few minutes, but Ven did stop crying. "O-o-okay," he stammered. Yet he wouldn't stop shaking. His breaths were still very shallow. He seemed exhausted. His eyes were red and baggy, as if he hadn't sleep well in days. She grabbed his hand, to try to comfort him. With her other hand, she pulled out her cellphone and made a call. "Hey, Rio? Are you home right now?"

Ven looked up at her as she said, "Good. I'm in Radiant Garden right now, actually, so do you mind if I stop by with my friend Ven?" She giggled softly. "Yeah, the one I talk about all the time. You gave him passes to Disney Town once, remember?" She wiped the tears from Ven's face. "I'll be there soon, Bro. Bye." She hung up the phone. To Ven, she asked, "Want to see my old home, where I grew up?"

He nodded. He wiped his face. "Sure."


	72. Dinner at the Manse

A mansion was hidden behind a wall, on a high hill in outskirts of the city. Aqua and Ven approached the front gate. She pressed a buzzer, and a screen that rested on the gate lit up.

"Who is it?" asked a burly guard.

Aqua answered, "Hi Charles. It's me."

The guard pressed his face against the screen. "L-L-L-lady Aquamarine! I-i-its been years!" He pressed a button on a remote control. The gate opened. Aqua led Ven inside, and down a limestone walkway. The front yard a maze of neatly trimmed hedge bushes, blooming with red and pink roses. The courtyard was decorated by a water fountain.

" _Lady_ Aquamarine?" Ven repeated.

"My family is super rich," she told him.

"How come you never gave me any munny?"

"My family is rich—not me."

"Fair enough."

The two entered the main house of the mansion. There, they were met by an army of maids and butlers. They were lined up in rows, and bowed in sync upon Aqua and Ven's arrival. "Good afternoon," they chanted in unison.

Ven was startled. "You have a large family!"

Aqua giggled. "This is my family's household staff."

Ven gaped in awe. Meanwhile, a familiar voice shouted from atop the grand staircase. "AQUA!" Rio ran down the stairs and embraced her. He picked her up and twirled her around. "My beloved sister!" Setting her down, his attention turned to Ven. "And her dear friend." He petted Ven's head. "A friend of my sister is a friend of mine." He spun 180 degrees, clapped his hands, and said to the staff, "Run a bath and prepare some fresh clothing for each of them. Also, prepare a dinner feast in celebration for the return of our beloved Aqua!"

"Yes Master," the staff chanted in unison. A butler grabbed Ven and dragged him away, while a maid led Aqua away. The rest of them hurried off to their duties.

It felt nice to have a warm bath. Aqua sunk so that only her eyes were above water. She blew a few bubbles.

After her bath, she emerged, wearing a bathrobe, into a room that had been made up for her. Two maids were waiting. One held a spaghetti strap, knee-length, white sundress.

"Master Rio would like you to wear this," they said in unison. Aqua sighed. "Why does he like dressing me up? It's weird." Nonetheless, she wore it.

She arrived in the dining room for dinner time wearing the fancy dress. Rio was already sitting at the head of the table, chatting to Ven, who sat to his left. Ven had been dressed in a navy-blue sailor boy outfit, complete with short-shorts, knee high socks, loafers, and the sailor hat. He was eating a bar of chocolate and saying, "I'll never tell her this, but I appreciate everything Aqua does for me."

Rio laughed. "Tell me more about how she is."

"She works really hard during training, she makes the best mac and cheese, and she's always sowing up my school uniform. She really is the best. But I'll never tell her that."

Aqua stifled a giggle. That's when Ven realized that she was in the room. He blushed. "Geez, Aqua! Don't sneak up on people!"

The young woman took her seat to the right of Rio. The three were served a three course meal, beginning with an appetizer of Bouillabaisse soup and salad, a main course of salmon en papillote served on a bed of fresh summer vegetables, and a desert of baked Alaska.

Ven gaped at the spread and said, "This is fancy. Like, really, really fancy."

While they ate, Rio asked, "How have you been, Sis?"

"I've been fine," she answered.

"What brings you back home? It's the first time in four years. Everyone is thrilled to see you."

She hesitated to answer. "Well… first of all, I'm now officially a keyblade master."

Rio jumped out of his seat. "I KNEW THAT YOU COULD DO IT!" he cheered. "Shall I call you Master Aqua from now on?"

She shook her head. "Sis is just fine."

"Congratulations."

"Thank you."

"You don't seem too happy."

She shook her head. "It's been bittersweet. Terra didn't earn the Mark of Mastery, and…"

Ven piped in, "He's been acting insane."

Rio placed a hand on Aqua's shoulder. "Aw, I'm sorry Aqua. Is he jealous?"

"I think he's acting on a lot of negative emotions right now," she admitted to her brother.

"Forget about that jerk. If he can't be happy for your success, then he isn't a real friend."

She shook her head. "Something went wrong during the exam and he gave into the darkness in his heart. And the darkness is only growing stronger. I don't think he can fix it by himself, but for some reason he keeps insisting that he can. I think he's in trouble of being completely consumed."

"I don't ever understand what you mean when you start talking about darkness and light and all that stuff, Sis. Can you dumb it down for me?"

"Light is goodness," Aqua clarified. "Darkness is badness."

"What do you mean?"

Aqua thought about it. "Light is stuff like kindness, resilience, forgiveness, gentleness. It's is the good intentions of the heart. Darkness is hatred, jealousy, anger, regret, misery, and the bad intentions that stem from those emotions."

"But doesn't everyone get jealous or angry at some point?"

"Yes. Almost everyone has a heart of light that is tainted with a little bit of darkness. Very few people have a completely pure heart or light, or a pure heart of darkness. It's rare. People with pure hearts of light don't last too long. They are too naïve. People take advantage of them and they get hurt. We all need a little bit of darkness to survive. But if you have too much darkness, well, either you destroy yourself, or someone destroys you. It's a balance. So right now, I'm afraid that Terra will be completely overwhelmed by his darkness."

Rio wiped his mouth with a napkin. "So you're saying that Terra gave into the darkness during the Mark of Mastery exam? Why?"

Aqua sighed. "I don't know. That's what I'm trying to find out. I'm sure if he just talked about, instead of running away from it, he'd be able to overcome it." Unconsciously, she placed her hand on her neck. Rio noticed. He leaned forward and asked, "What happened to you there?"

Aqua's eyes widened. "What?" She tried to look down at her neck, but she couldn't. Rio reached out and aligned his fingers with the bruise that was beginning to form. "Did… did someone choke you?" he asked.

She slapped his hand away. Rio was startled. "Aqua, for real, did someone choke you?"

She didn't reply.

"W-w-was it Terra?"

Aqua was about to lie, but as she met her brother's eyes, she couldn't. She nodded. "That's the danger that comes with the title, Big Bro," she admitted.

"What the fuck?"

Aqua didn't reply. The table was silent… except for the sudden sound of Ven gasping in pain. "Brain freeze," he moaned as he grabbed at the temples of his head. He had eaten the ice cream in his baked Alaska too quickly.

Rio continued, "I'm not letting you go back to the Land of Departure if you're going to get hurt by people who are supposed to be your friends."

Aqua spoke up, "Thanks for your concern, but I won't give up the life I've chosen."

Rio acknowledged that fact. "I know that you're old enough to make your own decisions, but you're still a young woman, and you're my little sister. I can't knowingly let you put yourself in a situation where something bad could happen to you."

"I can't let Terra fall into the darkness. It's my duty as a keyblade master to protect the ones I love." She placed her hands on her chest. "I love him, Rio. So I'm going to save him from the darkness."

Ven piped in, " _We_ are going to save Terra." Still pressing one hand to his left temple.

Rio exhaled. "Fine. Do whatever you want, Aqua. I know I can't stop you…" He sulked. "And I thought that this was going to be a fun evening…"

So Aqua changed the subject. "How are things with you Big Bro?"

Rio ran his hands through his blonde, wavy hair. "Same old, same old. I run my branch of the company and Mother oversees everything else. Mother has become so invested in her work that she doesn't come home. She travels from world to world and builds partnerships and acquires small businesses."

Aqua silently debated whether or not to mention that she had met their mother yesterday afternoon at the Castle of Dreams. "Does she talk to you at all, Rio?"

"Occasionally, for business related stuff. Usually it's a brief phone call or email." He leaned back in his chair. "It's hard, you know, because I've worked my whole life to be someone that she could be proud of. Now, Mother will barely acknowledge my existence…"

"I know that Mother is proud of you."

"What makes you say that?"

"I traveled the worlds yesterday, and I happened to meet up with her."

"Really? How is she?"

"Same as always. Still spiteful. But even though she claims that she doesn't care about us, I could tell that somewhere deep down, she does. She loves us and she's proud of who we've become."

Rio smiled. "She is? Wow…"

"And I'm proud of you too, Rio. I'll always be proud of you."

He placed his hand on top of Aqua's hand and said, "Thanks, Aqua. I'm proud of you as well. And although you might be choosing a dangerous path, I'm glad that you decided to choose your own path." He squeezed her hand. "But please, I don't want to lose you. I can't lose you. Okay?"

Aqua nodded.

Rio concluded, "I'll always love you, no matter what, okay?"

"And I'll always love you."

They hugged each other.

Aqua and Ventus ended up staying the night at Aqua's family home. The next morning, their cellphones were fully charged, and the maids had laundered their clothing and polished their armor. Once dressed, Aqua and Ven prepared to leave. They waved goodbye as they walked toward the front gate. "Bye Rio!" Ven shouted.

"Bye Ven! By Sis!" Rio called out.

"Bye Big Bro!" Aqua shouted. "I'll definitely come visit again soon!"

The Radiant Garden sun sparkled this slightly chilly Tuesday morning. After two days away from the Land of Departure, Aqua thought that Master Eraqus must be worried sick about Ven and Terra and her. So she decided to call him. She and Ven leaned against the gates of the D'Vitae manor while she called him, via face-time. He answered on the first ring.

"Aqua? Hello?" said the old man.

"Hi Master," she responded. Ven chirped, "Hi!"

"Ventus! It's good to see you! You are in so much trouble! Come home right now!"

"I don't have to listen to you, Old Man," retorted the stubborn boy.

Aqua explained, "I found Ven and Terra in Radiant Garden yesterday, but Terra ran off," she unconsciously touched her neck, "and it was really upsetting. So we stayed at my family mansion for the night."

"What is going on with that guy?" Master Eraqus said. "You two should come home. I'll go search for him myself. This is getting out of hand."

Ven said, "I don't want to sit around and hope that everything gets fixed. I want to help."

Aqua nodded. "I think that the two of us together are enough to handle Terra. You should stay home and see if he returns."

"It's been two days Aqua. I think this is beyond your scope."

"Master, please. I can do this. Trust me. You said that you believe in me. That's why you said I deserve the Mark."

The Master thought about it. "Well I suppose you have a point."

"Also, Terra said that he spoke to Master Xehanort. He said that he's doing something for him."

"Huh? Where did Terra find him? Xehanort hasn't been answering my calls or communicating at all. I've been getting worried."

"Terra wouldn't say. He didn't explain anything. He just threw a tantrum and left."

Ven rolled his eyes. "It was more than a tantrum, Aqua."

"What did Terra do?" asked Eraqus.

Aqua hesitated. "Um…" She changed the subject. "Ven and I are going to keep traveling through the worlds, fighting unversed and looking for Terra."

"Alright. But if you don't find him by this evening, come home. That is an order."

Ven stuck his tongue out. "No way Old Man. We aren't giving up until we find him and drag him back, even if he's kicking and—"

"Okay," Aqua agreed.

"Alright then. Be safe you two. Goodbye."

"Bye." Aqua hung up.

Master Eraqus sighed. He was sitting in the dining room, eating miso soup and rice for breakfast. "Something really is amiss," he said to himself. "I have a really bad feeling about this…" Then he scratched his head. "Wait, today is Tuesday. Shouldn't Ventus be in school?"

Ven argued with Aqua as they walked down the streets of Radiant Garden, looking for a good spot to armor up and take off. "Aqua we're not just gonna give up on Terra, right?"

"No, but if he's being too difficult, then maybe it _is_ beyond our power to help him." She placed her hand on her neck. "Terra is really strong, Ven…"

He got the message. "Whatever…" They walked a few more paces in silence. "Are you okay, Aqua?"

"I'm fine." They were in the middle of an empty parking lot now. "Okay, suit up. Let's go." She activated her armor. Ven did so too. Aqua opened a portal, and together they flew off.


	73. You Know I'm Bad

When Terra ran away from Aqua and Ven, he didn't know where he was going. He just wanted to get as far away as possible. He ended up in an alley, sitting against a building, grasping either side of his head in disbelief. Once again he had given into the darkness.

He was jealous. He was insanely jealous that Aqua was acting all high-and-mighty, telling him that she'd fixed all his mistakes, telling him that he had fucked up _phenomenally_ , telling him that he didn't deserve the Mark.

And she did? Did she really think she _earned_ the Mark? Eraqus probably gave it to her because of pity. She got beat so badly that Eraqus wanted to give her a consolation prize. Terra was definitely stronger than her in terms of raw power. Terra had defeated her during that battle. He deserved it.

No.

No he didn't deserve it. During his phone call with his parents, Terra's father, a man who had pursued the Mark in his youth, explained that giving into the darkness was definitely grounds for automatic disqualification.

Actually, his parents were growing tired of waiting for Terra to become a keyblade master. They were hoping that he would come home soon and take over the family business. "Maybe this is a sign," his father had said. "Maybe it's time you give up this dream and start something more practical. You always did say you wanted to be an engineer."

"Yeah, but I could always take it again, Dad. I don't want to give up," Terra said.

"Well, Son, don't take this the wrong way but, if you can't control the darkness in your heart, do you really think you can be a keyblade master? I believe you can, but it might take several more years of training, and, well, I don't want you to waste your youth on this. There are other opportunities out there. Do you understand?"

"Well I know that I've been doing this for a few years, and that's exactly why I want to try again," Terra argued.

"So are you going to keep trying until you earn the Mark of Mastery?"

"Yeah, but, it's not like…"

His father continued, "So when you earn it, will it be worth all that effort? I don't want you to work so hard and waste your time."

"But…"

"I'm not saying you should give up. I'm just saying you should think about your priorities."

"Ugh, can I talk to Mom, please? I know she'll be on my side."

His dad sighed. "Honey, he wants to talk to you."

Terra's mom took the phone. "Terra," she began.

"Yeah, Mom, do you know the situation?"

"Yes. And I agree with your father. Being a keyblade master is nice, but, don't you also want to have a stable life? Do you really want to go on adventures all the time? Why don't you think about coming back and going to college? You always were good at math and physics."

That was the point during the battle with the unversed when Terra froze and winced. "But… but Mom…"

"Terra, sometimes dreams die. And that's okay. Don't keep pursuing this if you don't want it. But if you do, I'll support you! It's your life. Live it how you want. We just want you to be sure that you think about what you're doing, before you do it. Okay?"

"I see…"

Now that he was sitting in an alley, freaking out about almost choking his friend to death, he seriously began to wonder, "Is this what I want?" He had a flashback of the looks of sheer terror in Aqua and Ven's eyes. "No. I don't want that." He closed his eyes. "But in that moment, I was so jealous that I wanted to hurt her. I wanted to hurt her for saying that I didn't deserve the Mark… Is that the kind of person I really am?" He shook his head. "I'm a piece of shit." He nodded his head. "Yeah. I'm seriously a piece of shit. Do I even deserve the Mark of Mastery? Should I just quit and go home to Mom and Dad?"

No. Xehanort said that he would award Terra the Mark if Terra could use the darkness to defeat Vanitas. Maybe Xehanort realized that Terra couldn't earn the Mark using Eraqus's methods. Terra needed a different task, because Terra was a phenomenal fuck up who couldn't do anything right.

"I'll show them. I'll show all of them," he told himself as the black flames of darkness emanated from his body. He stood up. He activated his armor. "Find Vanitas. Destroy him. Earn the Mark," Terra mumbled, as tossed his keyblade in the air. He mounted his glider and zoomed off into the lanes between.

…

He was riding for just a short time when he passed by a giant spaceship. He meant to pass around it, because he doubted the masked boy would care to release unversed in there, but he got too close to it.

Before he knew it, he was being sucked in toward the ship. "Whoa!" he shouted, as he hurled toward the spacecraft. He donked his head against the outer wall of the vessel and everything when black.

He awoke in a cot, in a cell, in the ship. He was laying down and his armor had deactivated. He rubbed the back of his head. "Ouch." He summoned his keyblade and cast, "Cure." Then he stood up, stretched and looked around. It was a jail room, in a large ship. His cell was secured by large green-tinted window, sort of like a glass cage. Alien guards were marching up and down, patrolling the area.

Terra banged on his door. "Hey! Hey!"

A guard walked by. "What?"

"Why am I in here?"

The guard scoffed and walked away.

"You can't just lock me up for no reason!" he shouted. "I know my rights!"

The guard kept walking.

Terra rolled his eyes. He could break out of here using his keyblade. And he was just about to do that, when a different guard came by, with a tray full of food. He opened a panel in the glass and slid it inside.

Upon smelling the tasty-looking alien food, Terra realized that he hadn't eaten all day. So he sat down to eat. Although he had no idea what he was eating, it was pretty good.

No one wants to rush after a good meal, so instead he rested on his cot and thought about what he would do next. He wondered aloud, "Xehanort said Vanitas would be attracted to light, but I didn't see him in Radiant Garden. Maybe I should go back?"

It was then that a blue fuzzy creature wearing an orange jumpsuit snuck into his cell, via the air duct. It scuttled along the ceiling quickly, darting its head back and forth.

"Oh fuck is that a space cockroach?" Terra said, jumping out of his cot, and summoning his keyblade.

"Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii," it said, dropping down onto his cot.

"Hi." Terra stared at it. It stared at him. It pointed at his keyblade. "Gimme."

Terra shook his head. So it pounced on him. Following a brief struggle, Terra managed to pin down the blue creature and hold it in a headlock. "Who are you?" Terra asked.

"Experiment 626," replied the monster.

"Experiment 626?"

"Created by Dr. Jumba."

"Experiment 626, huh? Well Six, I'm not giving you my keyblade, so go away."

"Fine!"

Terra let it go, and 626 curled up into a ball and rolled to the opposite end of the jail cell. There it sat, pouting. Upon getting a good look at 626, Terra, for some reason, was reminded of young Ven's pouting when he didn't get his way. So he took pity on little Six and said, "Fine, if you really want it, here." And he held out his keyblade.

Six grabbed it with two of his four arms. And he started to play with Terra's keyblade, swinging it up and down. Terra laughed. "You're kind of cute, Six. My name's Terra."

"Ter-ra?" the creature repeated.

"Yup. So what are you locked up here for, Little Guy?"

"Me bad," replied Experiment 626.

"Bad?"

"Made to be bad. By Dr. Jumba."

"You're made to be bad, huh? I think I am too. But I want to be good. I really do want to use this darkness in my heart for good."

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to hurt the ones I love."

"Love?"

"You know, the ones that make you smile. The ones that you care for. The ones that make you want to make happy. The ones you love."

"Love…" mumbled the experiment. "No understand."

Terra smirked and leaned his head against the wall. "Well, of course there's my parents. They raised me into the young man you see now. They're always so supportive of me… until now. They want me to come home and run the family business. It's a construction company. Dad's getting sort of old and the business is expanding…"

"Love Dad?"

"Yeah, and Mom too. So I really respect their wishes. But at the same time, I want to be a Keyblade Master." He pointed to the sword that Six was playing with. "That's a keyblade."

"Love keyblade?"

Terra paused to consider it. "Well I don't love the keyblade the way I love my parents or Aqua or Ven."

"A-kwu-a? Ven?"

"Aqua is the girl that I imagine spending the rest of my life with. And Ven… he's basically my son." He chuckled. "I raised that boy." He pulled a knee closer to his chest and rested his elbow onto it. "But they're angry at me. They probably hate me right now."

"Hate? Understand hate! Me made to hate! Made to destroy! You too?"

Terra shook his head. "No." He looked at this hands. "No I wasn't made to hate. And I wasn't made to destroy. And I don't think you were either."

"But my purpose is to destroy."

"Who told you that, little guy? You can choose your own purpose in life."

"Choose?" Number 626 thought about that for a while. "Choose my purpose?"

Terra nodded. "Yup."

Six handed Terra's keyblade back to him, and then climbed into his lap. "What do you choose?"

Terra was taken aback by that question. "I don't really know. I don't know what I'm doing or why I'm doing it. I'm really confused because I have a lot of darkness in my heart, and I don't really know where it's coming from…" Terra sighed. "Yes I do. I know where it's coming from. At first it was lust. Lust for power. Lust for her. Lust to have power over her…" He stared at his hand, the hand that he had used to choke Aqua earlier that day. "I've always wanted her to love me. But during that exam, I wanted her to fear me." He wiggled his fingers. "But that's not who I am. It was a momentary, but dangerous, lapse in my judgement, like Master said. But I was really upset that I hurt my friend, so I gave into misery and despair. Then I got angry that I didn't earn the Mark, and then I got frustrated that I kept messing up, and then I got jealous of her. I know where my darkness is coming from. I just keep denying it. And because of that, I hurt a lot of people, especially my friends. Master Eraqus was right. The darkness only grows if you aren't honest with yourself about it. I've been letting it fester inside me. I can't keep doing that."

Six asked, "What is friend?"

"Friend? You don't have a friend, Six? A friend is someone who cares about you."

"Friend…"

Terra took out his wayfinder and held it up to the light. "A friend is someone who you share a bond with. Sometimes that bond is so strong, that it's an unbreakable connection."

Six snatched the wayfinder out of Terra's hand. He held it up to the light and admired it. "Friend?"

"That's a wayfinder," Terra corrected. "It represents and unbreakable connection. And it's mine," he snatched it back from 626. "Aqua made it for me and Ven, because we're friends."

"A-kwu-wa. Ven. Friends?"

"Yes."

"…" 626 looked disappointed.

"But, I'll be your friend too, Six." Terra stroked the blue furball's head. "We can all be friends, okay?" He yawned. "Oh man, I'm tired." So he picked up 626, stood up, and laid on the cot in the prison cell. "You know Six," Terra began, while petting his newest friend, "I don't think you're bad at all."

"Not bad..."

"Nope. You're not bad at all." Terra smiled. "If anyone is bad, it's me. I'm bad for acting the way I've been acting. There's no excuse for it. I need to talk to Aqua and Ven and say sorry for what I've done. That's what I want to do. That's what I'm going to do."

"Not bad, Terra," said Experiment 626 as he snuggled up with Terra. Together, they drifted off to sleep.

When Terra awoke the next morning, Experiment 626 was gone. Terra sat up and yawned. He took out his phone to check the time, only to realize that it had died. And unfortunately, he hadn't brought his cell phone charger. He groaned.

"Guess I'll leave now," he said, summoning his keyblade. With a swift motion, it shattered the glass. That triggered the alarm. The guards raced to his jail cell, but Terra fought them off easily.

As he made his way off of the spaceship, Terra took one last look around, to see if he could say goodbye to his new friend. "Well, maybe our paths will cross again one day," he told himself, as he armored up, opened a portal, and flew away.


	74. Jailbreak

Aqua and Ven flew through the lanes between, toward the closest world, to start their search for Terra. From his peripheral vision, Ven noticed something speeding toward him from his left. "What's that?" he said, as it grew closer.

Aqua overheard and turned to look at it. "Is that—"

"An unversed!" they shouted in unison. It was a black and white, and looked like a jellyfish. But it was the size of a whale. Aqua turned the handlebars of her keyblade glider into a bow and arrow and started shooting it. Ven kickflipped his surfboard glider and smacked the unversed so hard that it hurled toward a passing spaceship. It smashed through the hull with a mighty BANG!

"Whooops," Ven said.

"Oh no," Aqua said. "Come on, we've got to do something!"

So they flew toward the ship and boarded using the hole that the unversed had smashed through. "Dammit," Aqua said, deactivating her armor. "Where'd it go?" She looked around the area. It looked like some sort of cargo bay. There were crates and boxes and packages stacked up all around them. "Something that big can't just disappear, right Ven?"

But Ven seemed a little out of sorts. He wasn't paying attention.

"Ven?"

"Oh, huh?"

"You okay?"

"…Aqua, these unversed… it's like… they're familiar."

"What do you mean?"

"I've noticed it, but I wasn't sure before. But now I'm completely sure." He grabbed either side of his head. "That thing that we just fought, it's a Kite Jelly."

"A what?"

"Remember? From _Pete's Adventures in Interspace?_ Remember the episode when Pete went into space to fight the horde of Kite Jellies that were attacking the mother ship?"

Aqua, who had watched almost every episode alongside him, and who was probably just as much of a fan of that show as Ven was, gasped. "Yeah! That thing does look like a Kite Jelly!"

"And Kite Jellies can become invisible, remember?"

"So that means—"

As if to answer their question, the Kite Jelly Unversed appeared right behind them. It sparkled, and then discharged a radial blast of thunder. Aqua encased herself and Ven in a barrier, and then countered with a spell of her own, "Blizarra!" She missed, and the Kite Jelly went invisible again. She turned to Ven, "How did Pete defeat the Kite Jellies?"

"He colored them with the paint bomb that Nova made. We need a paint bomb."

"How are we gonna make a paint bomb?"

But the paint bomb was the last of their worries, because they heard a stampede of footsteps, and found themselves staring down the barrel of bunch of laser guns. "Intruders!" shouted the alien guards who held them. "Put your hands up!"

Ven and Aqua did as they were told, and Ven said, "Aqua, it's like we stepped into an episode of _Pete's Adventures_."

The two were handcuffed, and marched down to the command room at gunpoint. There, they were made to kneel down in front of a tall, slender, grey-skinned alien lady. She looked down on them with stern authority, but not malice. One of the alien guards, a ten-foot tall giant, said, "Grand Councilwoman, we've captured the intruders that broke into the ship. Repair squad two is currently mending the hull."

"Thank you, Captain Gantu," said the Grand Councilwoman. She focused her attention on Ven and Aqua. "Who are you, and why did you break into our ship?"

Ven nudged Aqua with his elbow. "She's just like Captain Nova from the show. This is wacky, Aqua. This is just downright wacky. Am I asleep? I must be dreaming."

"Ven shush," Aqua chided him. "Grand Councilwoman, my name is Aqua. And this is my friend Ven. We don't mean any harm. We were passing by on our own personal transport devices when we encountered a monster. It's called an unversed—"

Ven interrupted, "It looks like a Kite Jelly."

The Grand Councilwoman raised an eyebrow. "Kite Jelly?"

"Have you ever watched _Pete's Adventure's in Interspace_?"

Aqua interjected, "Ven! Anyway, Grand Councilwoman, in our attempt to fight it, we accidently sent it crashing into your ship. It's a dangerous creature, and it can go invisible at will. We're the only ones that can fight it, and we would appreciate it if you could release us so that we can take care of it and be on our way."

The Grand Councilwoman scoffed. "And you expect me to believe this?"

"Yes Ma'am. I understand it sounds far-fetched, but I assure you that we speak the truth."

"You must think me a fool, Aqua. You must think that this is my first prisoner transport duty. Well it is not. I have been overseeing prisoner transport ships for the past 1500 solar cycles. And I know when someone is trying to break into the ship to free a prisoner."

Ven spoke up, "We're telling the truth!"

She looked into their eyes. She took a moment to think about it. Then she turned to the giant computer screen that was behind her. She pressed a button and pulled up a video from a security camera. "Tell me, do you know this creature?" She played the video.

It showed Terra breaking out of his prison cell, fighting off a bunch of guards, and then fleeing from the scene of the crime.

"Terra?!" both Ven and Aqua exclaimed.

Aqua continued, "Yes, we do know that young man. He's a friend of ours. His name is Terra. We're looking for him. How did he get on this ship? He shouldn't have been imprisoned here."

Captain Gantu said, "We found him trying to sneak on board as well. Don't play dumb." He poked Aqua on the back of the head with his over-sized laser gun. "Now get up and march to your cell, human."

"I'm half-moogle," Aqua barked.

"So am I," said a sarcastic Captain Gantu. "And half ewok too."

The Grand Councilwoman said, "Captain Gantu, lock these two up with high security. Don't let them out of your sight."

"Yes Grand Councilwoman."

Thus, Ven and Aqua were tossed into a cell the size of a broom closet, guarded by six armed alien sentries. Ven said, "What do we do now, Aqua?"

"We wait," she replied. "If they fixed the ship, that means they trapped the unversed inside. And it's going to start causing trouble any second now. Once it does, they'll realize we were telling the truth, and let us go. Otherwise, we'll have to fight our way out of here, and that will escalate the situation even more."

"But what if the unversed starts attacking and lets loose some of the prisoners on the ship? That's what happened in that one episode of _Pete's Adventures_."

"Ven, please stop comparing this to a TV show."

"And what if the unversed doesn't attack? Are we gonna sit here forever and be prisoners?"

"No. I'd think of something. Let me think of something." She bit her bottom lip.

Ven sighed. Then he asked, "Aqua why is it a Kite Jelly?"

"I dunno Ven. I don't know where these things are coming from."

"He said we can create an endless amount of monsters from our feelings… Was he being serious?"

"What? Who?"

"The boy in the mask." Ven closed his eyes. "Vanitas…"

"How did you meet that boy in the mask?"

Before he could answer, like Aqua predicted, there was an explosion. The ground rumbled and the ship's alarm blared. Someone shouted over the intercom, "Intruder in the machinery bay! We've lost control of the engines! It's, it's some kind of monster! The engines are under too much stress! We're risking a total meltdown!"

"Oh, you were right Aqua," Ventus said.

Within the next minute, the Grand Councilwoman freed Aqua and Ven from their cell and apologized profusely. "Our weapons have no effect on this monster, this, unversed. Please, we need your help."

"No problem," Ven said, summoning his keyblade. "Told you we were telling the truth."

"I apologize for my distrust," said the alien lady. "But you must understand, we are a high security transport ship, carrying the most vile criminals this side of the galaxy. We tend to err on the side of caution."

Aqua nodded. "I understand Ma'am. Ven, let's go take care of that thing."

"Wait, wait, wait," Ven said. "Do you have something we can use to make a paint bomb?"

…

Aqua and Ven raced to the engine room, where they saw the Kite Jelly attached to the engine core, sucking its energy. Aqua jumped into action, casting, "Aero!" to encase the unversed in a windstorm. Ven leapt into the air and landed a 20-hit combo on it, before finishing it off with a final blow. As he landed on the ground, the Kite Jelly turned invisible. "We came prepared!" Ven shouted as he threw a balloon filled with red paint in the air.

Aqua jumped up and said, "Aero," tearing the balloon apart, and splattering red paint everywhere. Together, they attacked the red silhouette of the unversed, battering it until it exploded into confetti and munny.

"Whoooo!" cheered Ven. "That takes care of that!"

"You're having a bit too much fun, Ven," Aqua chuckled.

They began to walk toward the command room again, but from his periphery, Ven saw something scuttling on the roof. "Another unversed?" he yelled, as he tossed his keyblade at it. Whatever it was, it caught the keyblade with two of its four hands. "Huh?" Ven staggered back. "Aqua! My keyblade!"

The fuzzy blue monster dropped down in front of Ven and Aqua, and jumped around. "Keyblade?" He said. "Terra?"

"Terra?" Aqua and Ven repeated.

Six-two-six reached into the pocket of his spacesuit and produced a make-shift wayfinder. He had made it himself to mimic Terra's. "Friend?"

Aqua and Ven gasped. Aqua pulled out her own wayfinder. Ven pulled out his Mizz Piggy doll, which had the wayfinder draped around her neck. Aqua asked 626, "Where'd you get that, little buddy?"

"Terra. Friend," the experiment replied. "Unbreakable connection."

"Terra's our friend too," Ven said.

"A-kwu-wa? Ven?"

They nodded. "That's us!" Ven said. "I'm Ven. She's Aqua."

"Friends?"

They nodded. Aqua said, "Yup. Friends."

That's when the rest of the alien guards showed up, along with the Grand Councilwoman. "Stop right there, Experiment 626!" shouted Captain Gantu as he charged up his laser gun. "Hands where I can see them!"

Six growled, and jumped into Aqua's arms. Captain Gantu gasped. "We've been deceived!" he said. "This was all a part of their elaborate ploy to break the abomination out of prison! Fire at will guards!"

"Wait!" shouted the Grand Councilwoman. "Let's not be rash! They did save our ship. Let's hear what they have to say to explain themselves."

Aqua asked, "Explain ourselves? What are you talking about? What's Experiment 626?"

Captain Gantu rolled his eyes. "Don't play dumb."

Ven retorted, "You're such a jerk, man. We honestly don't know what's going on here."

"That little beast you're holding. That's Experiment 626," the captain explained. "He broke out of his cell yesterday and we've been trying to capture it since."

"Why?" Aqua asked, petting Six. "Why was he in a cell in the first place? He's harmless."

"Harmless? That abomination was created by Dr. Jumba Jukiba to be the most destructive creature in the universe. It's to be banished to an asteroid on the far reaches of the galaxy."

"Whoa!" Ven exclaimed. "What'd he do?"

"What do you mean?

"What'd 626 do to deserve to be banished to an asteroid?"

Gantu looked to the Councilwoman. She looked to the guards, then back to Gantu. She said, "Well, he's done nothing yet. But we won't allow him the chance. We're taking precautionary measures."

"You and your fucking 'caution'," Ven grumbled.

Aqua shouted, "Language Ven!" To the Councilwoman, she said, "What Ven means to say, is that if you don't give people a chance to prove themselves, then you'll end up hurting a lot of innocent people. For instance, our friend Terra. What'd he do to deserve being locked up here in the first place?"

The Councilwoman looked to Gantu. Gantu said, "We found him sneaking into the ship."

"He was sneaking in? Like you saw him trying to get in?"

"Well, no. He was floating around outside near the ship, unconscious."

Ven asked, "Whoa, what? Was he hurt? Did you give him medical care?"

Gantu winced. "Well, no. We assumed he was trying to do something bad, so—"

"How did you know?" Ven fussed. "You didn't even give him a chance to explain himself! You can't just put him in prison because you _think_ he did something wrong!"

The Councilwoman sighed. "I see your point, human." She raised her hand. "We have wronged both you, Aqua, your friend Terra, and Experiment 626. For that, we apologize."

Gantu said, "Grand Coucilwoman, you can't be serious!"

"I am," she said. "In all my 1500 solar cycles running prison transport ships, I have never met two creatures like Aqua and Ven. They have taught me something new." She chuckled. "And in my old age, I didn't think I had much of anything to learn." She looked up at the smoking engine core. "While caution is good— vital, even—caution at the expense of another's very wellbeing, well that isn't caution at all. Should I banish Experiment 626 to a life of loneliness because I fear it might do something terrible? Why then should everyone else in the universe not be punished for something they might do?"

"But Grand Councilwoman," Gantu argued, "If he does something bad, then how could you live with yourself, knowing that you could have prevented it?"

"I'll live with myself because I'll know that I at least gave an innocent being a chance to do good. If he fails, that's his fault. Not mine." To 626, she said, "I hereby grant you pardon and release from this prison."

Thus, Experiment 626 was freed. He was given a little red spaceship to leave the prison. As he boarded his ship and prepared to leave, he said one last goodbye to Aqua and Ven. Holding up his wayfinder, he said, "Friends?"

"Friends!" Ven said.

"Friends," Aqua told him.

He waved goodbye as he blasted off into the far reaches of space. Gantu, however, was not pleased. He glared at Ven and Aqua and sarcastically said, "Thank you for negotiating the release of a criminal."

Aqua shook her head. "He's done nothing wrong, and he won't do anything wrong. I'm sure of it."

Gantu scoffed. "How can you be so sure?"

Aqua blinked. "Uh…"

Ven retorted, "The same way you're so sure that he's gonna hurt someone. You don't have evidence. We don't have evidence. Only time will tell." Ven nodded. "But I think he'll be fine."

"Whatever." Gantu stomped away. Aqua and Ven felt the floor tremble as the giant left the bay.

Ven shook his head. "Some people can only see the worst in others. Am I right Aqua?"

Aqua nodded. "It really makes me wonder though. What if 626 _is_ as dangerous as Gantu thinks he is? Then what? Did we do something wrong, Ven?"

"Have some faith, Aqua." Ven smiled. "I have that same faith about Terra. Whatever it is that's possessing him, he's fighting it. And he's gonna get back to his normal self. Then I'm gonna kick his ass until he apologizes for everything."

Aqua nodded. "Save some ass whooping for me, Ven."

They shared a brief laugh, before suiting up in their armor, and leaving the space ship.


	75. Mickey Joins the Brawl Again!

"Sign up for the games this afternoon!" shouted a random guy who stood in the middle of the plaza in the city of Thebes. "Sign up for the games! It's a tournament style battle at the Coliseum! Winner gets prizes and glory! People from all of the worlds will be coming to compete! Do you think you're strong enough?"

Terra was among the crowds of people listening to the man. "The games, huh?" Terra said to himself. "Sounds interesting." He pouted. "But I really should go back to the Land of Departure. My cellphone is dead, Ven and Aqua are probably looking for me, and I haven't spoken to Master Eraqus in two days."

The only reason Terra had stopped in this world was because he wanted some breakfast. Then he decided to walk around and think about what he'd say when he returned to Master Eraqus. _I'm back. Sorry I was ignoring your calls…_ _No. Hi Master. I'm back. You miss me? Haha…_ _No. Hi, are Ven and Aqua back? I need to talk to them. No… Ugh. What do I say?_ That's when he happened upon the man talking about the games.

The young man decided he should take himself home to Eraqus and just say whatever he had on his mind when he arrived. So Terra was about to walk away—then he overheard someone say, "I heard that there's a mysterious masked boy competing in the games. And he's really powerful."

Terra's ears perked up, and he paused to listen. Someone replied to the first guy, saying, "I heard that too. They say he's wearing black armor and a mask that hides his face."

Terra gasped. "Vanitas!"

A third person said, "I heard there's a plumber in a red shirt and overalls. And the world's fastest hedgehog."

"I heard that an alien bounty hunter wearing the world's most complex power suit is competing, and a fox from a group of mercenary arwing pilots!"

"I heard there's also a time-traveling blonde hero with a sword blessed by the goddesses! And a witch who kills angels."

"I think Batman is competing," said one guy.

Terra rolled his eyes. No way Batman would compete in a stupid tournament like this. Batman had much better things to do.

Either way, Terra changed his mind. He would enter the tournament. After all, Xehanort had asked him to defeat Vanitas. _And maybe I can do it without using the darkness inside me._ He told himself as he headed to sign up for the games. _I'll use this as an opportunity to fight strong people while keeping myself in control._

Terra found the registration booth, and spoke to one of the coordinators of the games. "Hello, I'd like to sign up," Terra said.

The coordinator was a short, chubby, half-goat man with a bald head and a loud voice. "Sure thing kid. First I'll need to see some ID. Gotta make sure you're over eighteen."

"Don't I look older than eighteen?"

"You'd be surprised," said the coordinator. "Some of these girls, you look at them and you think, that girl's definitely 18. But then you start talking to her, and you realize, she ain't 18. And I'm like, look kid, I like my girls legal. I'm not trying to flirt with jail time. I'm telling ya kid, all these high school girls are out here looking like they're in college or working full time jobs. I tell them, look little girl, enjoy being a little girl. You only get that chance once."

"I'm a guy," Terra said, handing the man his identification.

"Yeah, but I'm talking about girls."

"Why?"

"I'm imparting life lessons on ya kid. Keep your nose out of trouble." He inspected Terra's ID card. "Dreterran Ryusuke Smith. Cute. Got a nickname?"

"Terra."

"Okay, Terra. Fill this out." He handed Terra his ID and an application form and a waiver. "We need your information, and we need you to sign this form dismissing us of any liability in the case that you get severely injured or die."

"Um, okay?" Terra filled out the paperwork and returned it to Phil.

"So this is how the games work. We have two brackets: The West Bracket and the East Bracket. The winners of each bracket fight against each other at the end of the competition. We stagger the matches, and you're allowed to watch matches when you're not competing. If you're late to your match, you forfeit. If you get knocked-out, you lose. If you leave the ring during the match, you lose. Don't try to kill your opponent, but, eh, shit happens. Winners of each bracket get a trophy, but the overall winner gets their name carved into the Tablet of Heroes, on the base of Mt. Olympus. Got it?"

"Cool. Thanks sir."

"The name's Phil. Good luck Terra."

"Thanks."

Terra walked toward the entrance to the coliseum, where there was a waiting room for the competitors. He saw big, beefy warriors wielding axes and maces and longswords. He saw wizards floating and glowing with magic. This one guy was counting how many shuriken he had. "Maybe this wasn't a good idea," he told himself.

Another one of the games' coordinators appeared in the waiting room and shouted, "Next match, Blood Rage the Terrible versus Sir Tartarus, Avenger of Souls." Two of the burliest men in the room stood up and headed to the stage. Terra decided to watch this match. The coliseum was packed full with spectators, but he found a seat with a good view.

The battle began with Blood Rage the Terrible raising his hands to the sky and shouting, "Come to me, Eos, sword of the Dawn!" A bolt of thunder struck him, and in his hands appeared a sword made of early morning sunshine. Sir Tartarus, Avenger of Souls, wore his weapons strapped to his back. He grabbed two spiked maces, each caked with the blood of his enemies. "I need not a weapon o' mystic for thee to slay. I need only mine hands and a foe," said Sir Tartarus.

They clashed violently, striking blow after blow upon each other. Alas, it was Blood Rage the Terrible who won. He stood over the bloody carcass of sir Tartarus, and said, "May your soul rest in peace."

The audience cheered as some janitors cleaned up the stage.

Terra gaped. "What… did I sign up for?"

The next match was much more mild. A blue hedgehog ran around in circles, taunting, "I'm too fast!" as a little pink blob stood there, watching him. Eventually the pink blob thing opened his mouth wide and sucked in the hedgehog. He held the hedgehog in his mouth and walked to the edge of the stage. Then he spit him out, and that's how the pink guy won.

After a few more matches, it was Terra's turn. He took a deep breath as he stepped onto the stage. "Alright, let's do this," he told himself. His opponent walked onto the stage. Terra smiled, and forced back a laugh.

His opponent was cute little mouse, no more than half Terra's height, wearing a really cool outfit. "Nice to meet ya!" said the mouse, holding up his hand. "The name's Mickey!"

Terra shook the mouse's hand. "I'm Terra. Good luck."

"You too. Haha." The mouse assumed a fighting stance and summoned a keyblade. Terra's jaw dropped. Then he collected himself and summoned his own keyblade. Mickey exclaimed, "Whoa! You have one too? That's cool! I guess this'll be a fair fight after all. Haha!" Mickey charged toward Terra at lightning speed. Terra barely had time to block it. The blow caused Terra to slide to the very edge of the ring.

 _W-wh-what is this power?!_ Terra thought. _He's just a little mouse!_

Mickey cast, "Thundara!" Terra was blasted with lightning. He bore the attack, and countered with a powerful swing of his keyblade. Mickey jumped back in time to dodge. Terra ran after him and swung his blade. Mickey kept dodging. Terra kept swinging.

"Whoa! Whhoooa!" Mickey exclaimed as he blocked a blow from Terra. He tried to put some distance between himself and Terra, but Terra raised his keyblade and summoned pillars of rock all over the stage, making it harder for Mickey to dodge.

Mickey blocked another swing of Terra's blade, but then Terra kicked him so hard that Mickey smashed through one of the rock pillars. As Mickey stood up, he saw that Terra was pointing his keyblade at him. The look in Terra's eyes was really scary. "T-terra?" stuttered Mickey.

But Terra didn't reply. He shot bolts of concentrated darkness toward Mickey. Mickey literally teleported out of the way. He ended up behind Terra, and slashed his keyblade against the back of Terra's knees. Terra dropped to his knees.

"Grrrrr!" Terra roared. He released a radial pulse of darkness. The pulse was fast. It knocked Mickey out of the ring, and he smashed right through the walls of the coliseum. Mickey stammered, "Wh-what kind of power…?" before he lost consciousness.

The crowd cheered so hard that Terra regained his senses. He blinked a few times. He fell forward, onto his hands and knees, and panted heavily as he looked at the ground. "It's getting worse…" he told himself. "I completely lost control. Just because I was losing to Mickey."

He placed one hand on his chest and clutched it tightly.


	76. Strongest Under the Heavens

Terra's next match would be in about half an hour. He took that time to lean against the wall of the coliseum and think about his actions. _This time, it was because I was afraid of losing._ He thought. _I thought I was gonna lose to Mickey, so I let the power of the darkness consume me. And I hurt Mickey… will I ever be able to control this power? Maybe I should give up._

"How sad is this?" someone asked Terra.

"Huh?" Terra looked up and looked around. There were a lot of people scattered around, talking, laughing, enjoying the Games. Merchants were selling merchandise. Street vendors were selling food. But Terra didn't see anyone who looked like they were talking to him. So he lowered his head again.

"Pains me to see it," said the same voice. Once again, Terra looked up. This time, a tall, long-faced man whose skin was bluish-gray, and whose hair was aflame with blue fire, was standing beside him. The man wore dark robes, and his deep set eyes seemed to be holding an even deeper sadness. "All that power going to waste," he concluded.

Terra felt a little bit uneasy. "Who are you?"

"Name is Hades. Lord of the Dead, God of the Underworld, yadda, yadda, how you doing?"

"God of the dead?"

"Hey, lemme guess. You're trying to snuff out all that darkness inside of you. Am I right? Course I'm right. Well, anyway, bad idea."

"Wait, what?"

"Okay, stay with me here—darkness, that shit's inside everyone. Right?"

"Right."

"Nothing to be ashamed of. Right?"

"Right?"

"You play nice with it, and darkness with be your best friend. Right?"

Terra hesitated. "Right?"

"But if you go and get all self-conscious and refuse to face it, the darkness will run over you like a debutante at a toga sale. And then where are you? Nowhere!" Hades stood behind Terra and put his hands on Terra's shoulders. "Trust me kid. I'm the god of the dead. I see chumps like you in the underworld all the time. They couldn't handle their darkness. Hurt their friends. Hurt their family. Hurt themselves. It's sad really."

Terra lowered his head. "…"

"Now, you, kid, I look at you and I see potential. That's right. You got the potential to conquer the darkness inside you. And I'll even give you some pointers."

Terra closed his eyes. "Why would you want to help me?"

"Meh, I guess it's cuz I don't want to see you down in the underworld later today. I watched your first match. It wasn't pretty."

"But I won."

"Did you really win? Or did the darkness win?"

Terra winced. He stepped away from Hades. "Well, let's hear it then. How do I conquer the darkness?"

"It ain't easy. But you're taking a good first step, signing up for the games. You keep fighting, right, and I'll be there every step of the way to guide you. I'm kinda what you'd call an expert in the art of darkness."

"An expert?"

"Yup. I used to be filled up to the brim with it. I was miserable. Lonely. Jealous of my brother. It got so bad that I kidnapped a girl and forced her to be my wife. Then I poisoned my brother's kid, blah, blah, blah. Man, I did some shit that I don't even want to remember." He shook his head. "Maybe I see myself in you. Maybe that's why I want to help."

Terra looked up into Hades' face. He seemed sincere. So Terra nodded. "Okay." He reached out to shake Hades' hand. "I'm Terra."

Hades shook Terra's hand. "Nice to meet you, Terra." He wrapped an arm around Terra's shoulder. "First of all, you gotta decide whether or not you want to use the power of darkness. You can't control it if you're indecisive in the first place."

Terra looked at his hands.

"You kinda like it, don't you? It feels good when it makes you strong, right?"

Terra rubbed his forehead and said, "Yeah. It does. It feels good to win. It feels good to be strong. It feels good in the moment. But then I hate myself afterwards, because I do stupid shit."

"So do you want to use it or not?"

"I want the power, but I don't want to lose control of myself when I'm using it. Is that possible?"

Hades ruffled Terra's hair. "Let's go watch a match, kid."

The two returned to the audience of the coliseum. They watched a battle between a super buff martial artist and a well-toned boxer. Both were fist-fighting, but their movements were so smooth that it looked like they were dancing. Hades asked, "You think those two have darkness in their hearts?"

Terra shrugged.

"Well they do. That one, wearing the gi and red headband, he's a seasoned fighter. He fights all the time, in multiple tournaments, all over the worlds. He doesn't like to lose. Makes him angry. But he's also learned that losing is just as important as winning. If you don't lose sometimes, then you'll become stagnant. You'll think you're too strong to train. You won't have any motivation. That's what he's learned. He's using his darkness to empower him. Understand?"

Terra nodded.

Hades continued, "And that one, the boxer with the green gloves and black tank top, he's got darkness too. He always feels like others are looking down on him. Feels like he has something to prove. He feels like he's always fighting—but he's fighting an enemy he can't punch. He's fighting his own insecurities. That's why his moves are getting wilder. You see how he's losing his composure?"

Terra leaned forward, and saw that the boxer was slipping up. It was like he was forgetting the choreography of the dance. His punches were falling off beat, his dodges were off-rhythm. He was getting sloppy. He was getting angry. He starting swinging faster, swinging wildly, throwing himself at his opponent.

Hades said, "He's losing control to the darkness."

Terra nodded. "Yeah. I see it."

"So the match can end a couple of ways. That boxer guy, he can lose himself to his anger and insecurity. He can become wild and that darkness can make him stronger than his opponent."

Terra watched as the boxer hit the martial artist with a vicious punch, and knocked him backwards.

Hades said, "Or, maybe that wildness can be his downfall. Maybe his opponent will be too strong to be overcome by the power of darkness."

The boxer threw another wild punch, but the martial artist dodged and yelled, "Hadouken!" releasing a blast of white hot energy. It was a clean hit, and it knocked the boxer out of the fighting ring.

The boxer laid on the ground, his face twisted in fury. But the martial artist offered him a hand, and said, "Get up. You are the only one who determines if you lose, because you only truly lose if you refuse to get up."

And the boxer's expression softened. The fury cooled down. It turned into disappointment and determination. Reaching for the martial artist's hand, the boxer said, "You're right. Thank you."

"Thank you for the great battle," the martial artist said as he bowed to the boxer. The boxer returned the bow.

Terra gasped. "It's like his darkness disappeared."

Hades shook his head. "He's just got it under control now. Darkness never really disappears, Terra. It's always there and it always will be there. The trick is, you must always be able to control it, let it out in a way that strengthens you, not hurts you."

"Wow… all these years of training, and I never learned that…"

"Hey, sometimes you don't learn this kind of stuff from training. You learn it from life. You don't really know the depth of your own character until tough shit hits you in the face. That's why the wise ones say that when equal powers clash—"

"Their true natures are revealed." Terra gasped. "That's why Aqua's the master, and I'm not. All the shit she's been through, running away from her family, learning to take care of herself… She's already had her character tested. It's my turn now. And… I'm fucking up, phenomenally." Terra leaned back and covered his face. "Sssssshit."

Hades scoffed. "So what? You gonna cry about it?"

"No." Terra shook his head. "No. I'm gonna learn the depths of my own character."

Hades smiled, and nodded. He stood up. "You got a good heart kid. But you've also got a lot of darkness. It's your job to figure out how both can coexist."

Terra nodded. "Thanks Hades."

"No problem." Hades chuckled. "Good luck on your next match."

Terra waved goodbye as Hades left.


	77. Don't Remind Me

Aqua and Ven were walking through a city near a giant, white-stoned coliseum. There seemed to be some sort of festivity going on. They were trying to figure out what it was, but they were soon distracted.

"Hey sweet-cheeks! Sweetie with the blue hair!" shouted a male heckler from a short distance away. Ven whipped his head toward the direction of the voice. "Who the fuck does he think he's talking too?" Aqua pulled Ven along, saying, "Watch your language, Ven. Ignore it. I'm used to it."

"Sweetheart!" the heckler kept shouting. "Whoohooo! Girl I'm talking to ya!" He whistled. Ven turned around and shouted, "Alright, who's doing that?" He saw a chubby middle-aged man from the waist up, but a furry goat from the waist down. "Ew!"

"Ven!" Aqua chided him. Then to the satyr guy she asked, "What do you want?"

"The name's Phil, Sweetie, and I'm here to tell you to be careful walking around these parts. There have been reports of monsters. Why don't ya allow me to escort ya wherever you're going?"

"No thanks. I can take care of myself." To Ven, she said, "Let's go."

He jumped in front of them. "Hey, hey, hey, where are you in a rush to? You going to the coliseum for the games?"

"We're just looking for a friend," Aqua answered. "Have you seen a tall guy, brown spiky hair, blue eyes, strong build, wearing a black shirt and flowy trousers?"

"Sounds familiar. He's probably at the games. Lucky for you, I'm a coordinator for the games, so I have backstage access to certain areas. I can take you to look for your friend if you want."

"That would be nice."

"Then maybe later, I can take you out for a date?"

She rolled her eyes. "Never mind. Goodbye."

As she and Ven walked away, Ven said, "You should have punched him."

She shrugged. "It's whatever."

"No it's not whatever. It's nasty and—Mickey!" Ven's train of thought was interrupted when he saw the little mouse that had saved him from Vanitas yesterday. "Mickey!" Ven shouted, jumping up and down.

Mickey saw Ven, and he was just as excited. "Ven! Haha! Ven! It's you!"

The two ran toward each other and he jumped into Ven's arms for an embrace. Aqua laughed. "Who's that, Ven?"

"It's Mickey! He saved me from Vanitas!"

Mickey asked, "I did?"

"That masked boy," Ven clarified. "His name is Vanitas. The one that attacked me."

"Oh. Oh yeah. Haha. That was scary. Haha."

Aqua became concerned. "The masked boy attacked you? When?"

"It was yesterday, after you sent me home. Vanitas attacked me, and then Mickey saved me, and then I ended up in Radiant Garden. But I'm okay! And Mickey's fine too." To Mickey, he said, "This is my friend Aqua."

"Hi Aqua," Mickey said.

Then Ven set Mickey down and asked, "So what brings you to this world, Mickey?"

"I was fighting in the tournament at the colosseum. I thought it'd be fun to test out my strength, but there's this one guy that's really strong. He whooped my butt, haha. He has a keyblade too, haha."

"A really strong guy with a keyblade?! What did he look like?"

"He was a tall human with brown hair, and really pretty eyelashes."

"Terra!" Ven and Aqua exclaimed at the same time.

"Yeah! That was his name," Mickey confirmed.

Aqua and Ven thanked Mickey and hurried off to sign up for the games.

Unfortunately, Phil the creepy satyr dude was the official sign up guy. When Aqua and Ven approached the registration booth, he asked, "Eh, so you changed your mind after all Sweetie?"

Aqua said, "First of all, I'm not your sweetie. Second of all, we want to sign up for the games."

"The games? What's a fine piece of eye candy like yourself doing signing up for the games?"

"Just sign me up."

"Alright, but I'm warning you now that there's some pretty strong guys competing. First I need to see some ID. I tell ya, some of these girls, they'll look 25 but they definitely won't be."

Aqua cringed, but she handed to him her identification card. He inspected it. Then he returned it to her and gave her an application form and a waiver. "We need your information, and we need you to sign this form dismissing us of any liability in the case that you get severely injured or die."

"Okay?"

Aqua began filling it out. Ven asked, "Can I have one too?"

"You eighteen, kid?" asked the chubby satyr man.

Ven shook his head. "No, I'm fifteen."

"Then I got two words for ya, kid—no minors allowed."

The boy's shoulders slumped forward. "What?"

"You got a problem, then take it up with the board of commissioners."

"Come on, you gotta let me compete!"

"Nope."

Aqua finished her paperwork. "Here you go," she said handing it back to Phil.

Phil explained, "Alright, so this is how the games work. We have two brackets: The West Bracket and the East Bracket. The west bracket is full, so you'll have to join the east. We stagger the matches, and you're allowed to watch matches when you're not competing. If you're late to your match, you forfeit. If you get knocked out or leave the ring during the match, you lose. Your opponent isn't supposed to kill you, but if you feel unsafe at any point during the match, just call my name and I'll come save ya."

Aqua wanted to punch this guy so hard. But she didn't. "Okay," she said curtly.

Ven said, "Wow, Phil, you asshole. Don't treat her like that. She's a keyblade master."

Phil laughed. "That's funny. He's cute. He's your little brother or something?"

Ven said, "I'll show you something cute—"

"No, Ven," Aqua said, pulling Ven aside. "It's okay." But he could tell that it wasn't okay, because her face was red with anger.

"Aqua kick his ass," Ven whispered.

"How's that gonna solve anything?" she whispered. "This guy is inconsequential."

"Then I'll show him some consequences."

She chuckled, and she felt a little bit better. "Anyway, let's split up. You spectate and call me if you see Terra. I'll battle and if I see Terra, I'll call you. Okay?"

Ven pouted.

"Ven?"

"Okay."

Aqua ruffled his hair, and followed Phil into the coliseum. As he watched them wander away, Ven placed his hands behind his head and grumbled to himself, "Aqua's too nice. I know she wants to be polite, but, damn. You can't let someone disrespect you like that, Aqua." He sighed. "I wish Terra was here. He would have taught that guy a lesson." Ven paced around the courtyard, head lifted toward the sky, talking aloud to himself. "Terra, what am I gonna do without you?"

"Hey!" someone shouted out. Ven stopped walking, and turned his head toward the sound of the voice. It belonged to a young man, about Terra's age. He had blonde, spiky hair with side-swept bangs. His eyes were bright blue—the same color as Ven's. He was dressed in dark blue jeans, a white t-shirt, and a white and black varsity football jacket with the number 13 on it. He got very close into Ven's personal space, stooped down, and gazed at Ven with an intense curiosity.

Ven took a step back. "Um, excuse me?"

The older guy took a step back as well. "Sorry, sorry. I was just…" He paused. "You said you're fifteen?"

Ven took yet another step away from this strange young man. "How do you know that?"

"I'm sorry, but I was standing nearby and I happened to overhear."

"Okay…" Ven kept backing away.

The young man reached for Ven's hand. "Can I ask you a ques—"

"Don't touch me!" Ven summoned his keyblade and swung at the stranger, who back-flipped away. He stared at Ven's keyblade, Wayward Wind. "Oh shit, it is you," the guy mumbled. He pointed to himself, "Don't you remember me?"

Ven shook his head and assumed a battle stance. "Who are you? What do you want?"

"My name is Notus. Notus Johnson. I'm your brother."

Ven lowered his keyblade. "B-brother?"

"I know you were young, but you've got to remember me!" Notus took a step closer. Ven backed away.

"I don't have a brother," Ven assured the strange young man. "I've always been with Aqua and Terra and Old Man Eraqus."

"Eraqus?" Notus repeated. "That name sounds familiar…" Notus tapped his feet as he tried to remember. "Is he the Keyblade Master? In the Land of Departure?"

Ven nodded.

"I met that man once," Notus reminisced. "It was… four years ago. I got sick from cleaning his office. Is that where you've been? That doesn't make sense. I would have bumped into you, right?"

Ven looked at his keyblade. "But I've always been there… I've always… been there…"

"Do you remember me, Venny?" questioned his brother. "Do you remember when we were kids?"

Ven shook his head.

"You don't?" the young man seemed upset by that. "Well I guess you wouldn't want to remember it… especially the… _incident_ …"

"What _incident_?"

"Never mind. Listen," he approached Ven and placed a hand on his shoulder, "I'm your brother. I've been searching for you for seven years. Then one day, I heard your heart calling out for help. It was fading away. So I reached out to you. Since then, it always feels like you're in two places at once."

"What are you talking about?" Ven mumbled, his eyes darting between Notus's face and the floor beneath him.

"We were separated," Notus explained. "I was fourteen years old, you were eight. I wanted to find you. They didn't tell me what happened to you. I couldn't find out any information about what happened to you." He pulled Ven into a hug. "But I needed to find you, Venny, because I've always wanted to tell you that I'm sorry. I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough to protect you."

Ven's expression became blank. "What are you talking about?" he whimpered.

Beady yellow eyes.

Ven grabbed at his forehead and shouted, "GET AWAY!"

"What?" Notus said, releasing Ven and backing away.

Black cockroach creatures crawling all over him.

"GET AWAY!" Ven shrieked. "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"But Venny—" pleaded Notus.

Darkness. Falling into endless darkness.

I'm dying.

I can't breathe.

Save me.

"HELP ME!" Ven screamed. "HELP! HELP!"

"Venny, what's wrong?"

Ven dropped to his knees. He dropped his keyblade and placed both hands on his forehead, his eyes wide with panic. "NO! NO! STOOOOOP! STOOOOP!"

A red-eyed woman, wielding a chef's knife glowing red with fresh blood.

"STOOOOOP! STOP!" Ven screamed.

By now, his outburst had attracted the attention of the spectators that had come to watch the tournament. They gathered around him and mumbled to each other, wondering what was going on. Notus, panicking, didn't know what to do. "Venny, what's going on?"

Ven grabbed his keyblade, jumped up, and pushed right through the crowd of people gathered around him. He swung his keyblade at a defenseless clay pot situated in a corner of the courtyard. He swung and swung and swung his blade, bashing into millions of tiny pieces. It was a pile of dirt by the time that he was done with it.

Breathing heavily, Ven returned to his senses. He stared at his hands. Then he turned and stared at the crowd that was looking at him. Tears pooled up in his eyes. He shook his head. "No," he mumbled. Ven activated his keyblade armor, summoned his keyblade glider, and rode off into the realm between worlds.

Notus, shocked, leaned against a nearby support column, ran his hands through his hair, and asked himself, "I only make things worse for him, don't I?" He took a few deep breaths to calm himself. "Well this time, I'll set things right."

Right then, Phil ran out of the colosseum and shouted, "Hey Note! What are you stalling for? You're next!"

"I quit!" Notus yelled, as he waved his hand to activated his own keyblade armor. He wore a silver suit, like a knight. He summoned his keyblade, a simple Kingdom Key. He threw it into the air and summoned his glider, which resembled a surfboard. He jumped onto it and rode off into the space between worlds.

"NOTUS!" screamed Phil, as he jumped up and down. "WHAT THE HELL KID!?"


	78. And I Do It Yet Again

Terra waited for his opponent to show up for his next match. He stood in the ring, tapping his foot, ready to prove to himself that he could fight without giving into the darkness in his heart. He waited for about ten minutes, until Phil the Game Coordinator appeared on stage and said, "Sorry everyone, we'll have to scrap this match. The idiot forfeited."

The crowd booed. Phil said, "I know, I know." To Terra, he said, "You'll automatically advance to the next round." Then he took a good look at Terra and realized, "Oh, this must be the guy she's looking for."

"Huh?"

"Some girl was looking for ya."

"A girl?"

"You lucky bastard. She's the whole package." He nudged Terra. "If you know what I mean. Alright, let's get you off the stage so these games can continue. Am I right?" He led Terra back to the waiting room as Terra wondered, _Some girl was looking for me? Does he mean Aqua?_

"Your next match will be in about ten minutes, so I suggest you wait here," Phil said.

"What girl? What was her name?"

"I didn't catch her name, but she was a beauty. Whoo, I saw her from a mile away. She had hair bluer than the sea and she had an ass for days."

Terra grabbed Phil by the neck and lifted him up. "Don't talk about Aqua like that you fucking pig." Wisps of darkness radiated off of his forearm.

"P-p-put me down!" Phil gasped, clawing at his neck. "K-killing a coordinator is g-g-grounds for immediate disqualification."

Terra squeezed Phil's neck harder. "Disqualify me then."

Luckily for Phil, another guy sucker punched Terra in the back of the head. Terra staggered back, released Phil, and turned his attention to the assailant. It was a red-headed guy, probably Aqua's age. He was slender, but toned, and had an innocent look in his eyes. "D-don't hurt Phil!" the boy shouted.

Terra sighed, and calmed himself. He looked at his hand, and said, "I won't. He just pissed me off."

Phil grabbed at his neck, and staggered toward the red-hed, saying, "You know what, Herc, I think I deserved that." He coughed and cleared his throat. "It's not the first time it's happened to me. You think I'd learn my lesson. By the way, this guy's your next opponent."

Herc's eyes tripled in size. He looked up to Terra, a muscular, 200-cm giant (that's 6ft 5in). "H-h-how am I supposed to fight this guy?"

"It's not about size, kid. It's about heart. You've got a good heart Herc. I believe you can win." Phil walked toward the exit. "And you'd better win, because Note just flaked out on me. I tell ya, you take in a kid and train them to be a hero, and what thanks do you get? None! He just quits and runs off without explaining!"

"Wh-what?" Herc followed Phil. "Notus quit? For real?"

Terra sat on a bench and leaned back. "He said that Aqua was looking for me. That means she's here, watching the games. I have to show her that I'm not a fuck up. I can do this. I have to do this."

When the time came, Terra marched up on stage. The crowd cheered for him.

Then Herc scuttled onto the stage. He was shaking with nerves. Terra offered his hand to the guy. "I'm Terra," he said. "I promise, I'll fight honest."

Herc grabbed Terra's hand in a weak handshake. "I-I'm H-Hera-Heracles—Hercules! Hercules. B-but people call me Herc. I'll fight honest too. Hehe." He had a nervous laugh.

Phil, from the sidelines, said, "Herc! What're you so scared for? Do true heroes get scared? Be brave, kid!"

"Right." Hercules faced Terra. "I-I'm gonna give it everything I have!"

"Me too." Terra summoned his keyblade. He took a deep breath. He wasn't gonna lose control. He wasn't going to hurt this guy. He was going to knock him off the ring and win without the power of darkness. "Let's go!" Terra shouted as he ran toward Herc.

Terra thrust his blade.

Herc sidestepped.

He used his elbow to bash Terra on the head.

The blow blew a crater in the middle of the stage.

Terra lay in the middle of it, face-down, three-feet-deep in the ground.

And he got angry.

 _He was hustling me. He wanted me to think he was a weakling. He wanted me to let my guard down._ Terra rose to his feet. He jumped out of the crater, and soared high into the sky. He gathered darkness on the edge of his blade, and started shooting it downward, like rain from the sky.

Herc yelped, and ran around the stage, ducking and dodging the bullets of darkness. Meanwhile, Hades, sitting on the sidelines drinking a soda, shook his head and sighed, saying, "I guess he didn't learn."

Terra's darkness bullets were tearing apart the stage, sending rubble everywhere, tossing chunks of debris into the air. The audience had to take cover.

Then Terra threw himself down, slamming himself like a meteor. He barely missed Herc, and he blasted whatever was left of the stage into smithereens. He stood in the crater that used to be the ring, emanating darkness, breathing heavily.

When the clouds of dust cleared, Terra saw that he had won. But not because he had beaten Hercules. Hercules had left the stage to catch a massive chunk of the debris, before it smashed into the audience. It would have crushed about thirty people on the front row, if Herc hadn't caught it.

The boy was panting, his knees were shaking, and he was actually crying. That's how scared he was.

"Oh shit," Terra mumbled. He realized that Herc hadn't been trying to trick him. Herc was honestly just an awkward, insecure young man—who happened to have super strength. It was Terra who had broken his promise to fight honestly.

Terra stood there, in shock. Phil, approached him, said, "Congrats. You won kid," in a sarcastic voice, and led him away.

…

Aqua sat in the East Bracket waiting room, texting her brother, when the earthquake hit. She fell out of her seat, and her 360-degree ultimate protection barrier popped up. The ground shook only briefly. When it stopped, she ran into the audience of the coliseum to see what the commotion was. The onlookers were screaming in terror. There was a lot of smoke and dust and debris, so Aqua raised her keyblade and used, "Aero!" to gently clear the air.

With the dust gone, Aqua could see that the stage had been smashed to oblivion. Standing in the center of the ruins was none other than, "Terra!" she screamed. But he couldn't hear her. "Terra! Terra!" she shouted, trying to make her way to what should have been the stage. But someone gently grasped her arm. It was a man in black robes and flaming blue hair. He simply shook his head. Aqua yanked her hand away. Then she paused to really look at Terra.

Upon this second look, she saw that he was cloaked in darkness. It was as if his body was burning with black flames. She gasped. She was terrified. "I can't handle this," she realized.

"Bingo," Hades agreed. He took a slurp of his soda. "He's too far deep. Only he can pull himself out now."

"Then I'll go get Ven and we'll tell Master Eraqus," she decided.

Hades shrugged.

She ran toward the coliseum exit, while calling Ven with her cellphone. He didn't answer. She called Ven again. He didn't answer. She called Ven, yet again. "Ven," she said, when he didn't answer. "Ven!" she shouted as she tried to call again. He wasn't answering. She shook her head. "Why isn't he answering?"

She was really confused. She walked over to a group of people and asked, "Hello, have any of you seen a blonde kid that looks like this?" She showed them a picture of Ven on her cellphone.

One lady said, "Oh that child! He was screaming and causing a fuss a little while ago."

"Huh?"

"He was screaming, 'Help! Help!' but no one was attacking him. Another young man was trying to calm him down." She pointed toward the sky, "They flew off that way."

Aqua was lost in shock for a moment, but she thanked the lady. She stepped back, activated her keyblade armor, summoned her glider, and chased after Ven.


	79. Faith

The brilliant blue sky. A cool seashore breeze. A sparkling firefly that wore a green dress. She flailed her arms in front of Ven's face.

Ven sat up and yawned. He heard a child's voice say, "He's awake!" Ven looked toward the sound of the voice. It belonged to a brown-haired, freckled little boy wearing one-piece panda-bear pajamas. He was sitting beside Ven on the beach, making a sandcastle. "Hi!" the boy said.

"Hello," replied Ventus.

"I'm Lil' Timmy! What's your name?"

Ven stared at Lil' Timmy for at least two minutes. Finally, Ven answered, "I dunno."

"Whaaaa?!" exclaimed Lil' Timmy. "How come you know your own name?"

Ven shook his head. "I just don't…" He touched his forehead. "Um…. Let's see… um…" he shrugged. "I just don't."

Lil' Timmy stood up and kicked over his sandcastle. "Can I make up a name for you?"

"Sure."

"I'll call you… Dum Dum the Dum Dum."

Ven frowned. "That sounds stupid."

"Yeah, because you're stupid for forgetting your own name." Little Timmy teased.

"That's fair I guess." Ven looked around. "Where am I?"

Timmy shrugged.

"I guess I'm lost," Ven decided. "Are you lost too?"

Timmy paused, as if he'd never thought about it before. "I guess I am…" He rubbed his little chin. "I guess that's why Peter Pan calls us the Lost Boys."

"Who's Peter Pan?"

Timmy's expression soured. He grumbled, "Our leader. He takes us on all sorts of adventures."

"Can I go on adventures too?"

"I guess." He extended a hand to help Ven stand.

The green firefly lady whizzed around in Ven's face. "What's this?" Ven clasped his hands in front of him right in time to catch her. Little Timmy screamed, "Don't crush Tinkerbelle!"

Ven released the unharmed fairy. "Oops, sorry."

Tinkerbelle kicked Ven's nose and stuck her tongue out at him. The two trekked along the beach. Timmy pointed out the landmarks as they did. "That's the Pirate's Cove. That's where Captain Hook sets his ship sometimes. That's Black Dirt Mountain. If you dig there, the dirt is black. There's Rocky Cave. It's a cave full of rocks."

"You sure know a lot, Lil' Timmy," Ven said.

"Yup! I go exploring by myself a lot." The two kids made their way up to a campground. "This is the Indian Campground. We call it that because Peter said so."

Ven looked around and saw all the tents and woven rugs scattered about. There were seven other boys, each wearing a onesie pajama of a different animal. "Guys!" Timmy called out, "I made a new friend! His name is Dum Dum the Dum Dum!"

"Hi Dum Dum!" everyone said.

"Hi," Ven replied.

"He wants to go on an adventure."

From above, someone called out, "Adventure!" It was Peter Pan himself, flying around in the sky. "If anyone knows adventure, it's me! What kind of adventure shall we seek today boys? Buried treasure? Fighting Hook? Catching fish and bugs?"

Timmy raised his hand. "How about a sand-castle building contest?"

"No," Pan said bluntly. "That's stupid."

"Oh." Timmy lowered his head.

"Any other stupid ideas?" Pan asked.

Everyone said no.

"Then let's go fight Captain Hook," Pan decided. "Come on men!"

Everyone agreed.

Everyone except Timmy. He mumbled, "But I want to make sandcastles" while, kicking a pebble. While the rest of the Lost Boys followed Pan, Timmy stayed behind. Ven, who had begun to follow Pan, noticed that Timmy wasn't coming. So he stopped and returned to Timmy. "What's wrong little guy?"

"No one makes sandcastles with me…"

"I'll make sandcastles with you," Ven said.

But Peter overheard. "Hey! What are you slacking for!" he yelled at the two. "Come on men, time to get in formation! March!"

Ven shook his head. "Nah, I'd rather make sandcastles with Timmy."

All of the lost boys stood dead still, their jaws dropping in shock. Pan asked, "What did you just say?"

Noticing the tenseness, Ven said, "I'd rather make sandcastles."

Pan flew in circles around Ven. "Well I want to go on an adventure."

"Then go. Timmy and I will make sandcastles."

Pan landed on the ground, beside Ven. Now that he was standing, Ven realized that Pan was bigger than he originally seemed. He a little taller than Ven—and a little heavier too, but not much. Ven guessed that Pan was maybe a year or two older than him. Pan wore a dingy green tunic, dark brown trousers, a faded green cap and brown moccasin shoes. He reddish-blonde hair was messy, and he had a little bit of scruffy facial hair on his chin, like a boy on the cusp of manhood. Strapped around his waist was a belt, carrying a satchel where a sharp, steel dagger rested. "You're new around here, aren't you?" Pan asked, slapping Ven on the back. "What's your name?"

Ven hesitated. "Uh…"

Another lost boy chimed in, "His name is Dum Dum the Dum Dum."

Pan nodded. "That's a fitting name. He doesn't know how it works around here. You see, we always play follow the leader, and I'm the leader." He grabbed Ven's shoulders and shook it. "Understand?"

Ven nodded.

"Alright then, men, march!" Peter declared as he flew into the air again. He led the lost boys, Ven, and Timmy toward the wilderness.

The boys walked down a gently sloping trail, down toward another side of the shore. Ven and Timmy lagged behind. Ven said, "He's kind of scary."

Timmy nodded. "If he gets really angry he get really mean and scary looking. Sometimes he calls us names or makes us sit in the dark all alone at night."

"Yikes! What makes him angry?"

"When people don't listen to him. Usually everyone listens to him and everything is fine."

Pan shouted, "Attention!"

The boys all lined up, facing him, standing at attention. Ven did the same.

Pan alighted on the floor again, and paced back and forth. "Our quest is to drive away Captain Hook. His boat is just down there, on Seashell Shore! We'll have to fight with all our might! Got it?"

"Yeah!" the boys cheered. Pan armed them with wooden swords, and they raced down to the shore. Peter, however, had a real weapon. He flew ahead of them, saying, "Oh Hook! I'm coming for you!"

The way Peter Pan said that made Ven nervous. He stayed back, watching as the boys yelled and laughed, running toward Captain Hook's boat like this was a game of tag. Lil' Timmy, too, stayed back. He swung his wooden sword in the air, uninterestedly. "I don't really like fighting Captain Hook," Timmy admitted. "We do it, like, ten times a week."

"Really?"

"Okay, maybe not like, ten. But we do it a lot." Timmy walked toward the shore, and Ven followed. Timmy kept talking, "It's not even really fun. All of us go bully Hook and it's not really fair."

"Why do we bully Hook?"

Timmy shrugged. He stuck his sword in the sand and sat down. Both of them watched as the Lost Boys stormed onto Captain Hook's ship and started banging their swords against anything they could find. To them, this was a game of chaos—the more destruction, the better.

Peter Pan, however, was not playing around. Armed with his dagger, he swung at Captain Hook, who was defending himself with nothing but the metallic hook that took the place of his left hand.

Hook seemed like a weary old man. He had long, wavy black hair that had plenty of grey strands highlighting it. His long black-and-white beard and mustache combo were braided into a single three-strand twist. He wore a faded, red, tattered captain's uniform and dull, black boots. His eyes were sunken, heavy, and circled with dark rings, like he hadn't slept in years. He gritted his teeth as he parried an attack from Pan.

Ven winced. He didn't like watching this. So instead he turned to Lil' Timmy and said, "We're on a beach. We can make a sandcastle now if you want."

Timmy shook his head. His eyes were glued to the fight between Peter Pan and Captain Hook. "I don't want to build a sandcastle anymore." Timmy watched as Captain Hook jumped overboard, off of the ship, and into the sea, to avoid being gutted by Peter. Pan laughed as Hook treaded water. Raising his hook to sky, Hook shouted, "Leave me be, you wicked fae!"

Peter spat in his face. Then he declared, "Victory is won men! Now we retreat!" and led the Lost Boys back to shore. Timmy slumped his shoulders, "Hook never wins, huh? I wonder why he keeps playing the game if he always loses. Maybe next time, I'll be on his side. That's only fair, right?"

Peter and the Lost Boys ran right past Ven and Lil' Timmy, laughing and giggling as they retreated. When they had disappeared beyond sight, Timmy stood up, and walked over to Hook, who had swum to shore. Ven followed.

"Captain Hook, you keep losing," Timmy told him. Hook, startled by the sudden company, flinched so hard that his hat fell off of his head, revealing a huge bald spot. Timmy and Ven laughed. Hook joined in their laughter, grabbing his hat and returning it to its rightful place. "Well I don't think I've lost, son," said the old man affectionately. "In fact, I'd count this as a win. He ran away without kicking me off the island, right?"

Timmy seemed puzzled. He sat down in the sand, next to Hook. "Kicking you off the island? Why would Peter Pan kick you off the island?"

"The question isn't 'why would he do it?' The question is 'will he be able to do it?'" Hook shook his head. "He hasn't done it so far, and he'll never do it as long as I have air in my lungs. No matter what, I'll always be here to ferry lost boys off of this island."

"Ferry lost boys off of this island? What do you mean?"

"What's your name, son?"

"Lil Timmy."

"No, what's your real name, son?"

Lil Timmy thought for a moment. "What do you mean?"

Captain Hook reached over to stroke the boy's hair with his good hand. "You had a name before you wandered onto this island. All of you did."

"What do you mean?" Timmy was becoming concerned.

"This island is magic, and Peter Pan is the fae that rules over it. He uses the island's charm steal you away."

The look of panic that seized Timmy's face caused Ven to get nervous too. But neither said anything. They watched the ebb and flow of the tide on the beach.

Finally, Lil' Timmy asked, "Where am I?" as if he was just realizing that he didn't know where he was.

"A place where children go to escape," replied Captain Hook. "A place where time passes at its own pace. A place where a day can be a year, or a year can be a day. A place where you can take a break to heal, or disappear and never return. This is Neverland."

"N-Neverland?"

"I don't know what you're running away from, but whenever you're ready to go back, I have a boat to take you home."

Timmy stared at the sand. He whispered, "I think I'm ready."

Hook shook his head. "I can't take you back unless you remember your name. As long as you claim your Lost Name, you're under his spell."

"How do I remember my name?"

"You have to remember what it is that you're running from."

Lil' Timmy pulled his knees to his chest. He wiggled his toes. He sat quietly. Ven watched as the boy pondered his situation. "My sister died," the boy finally admitted. "My little sister. We were walking home from school when that car hit us. She was only seven years old. She had the best smile. She was always asking me to play dolls with her. I'll never get to play dolls with her again."

Captain Hook placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"I don't want to go back if she's not there…" The boy tightened his grip around his knees. "I'll miss her too much."

"So do you want to stay here? You can stay. I won't force you to go back."

"I don't think I can stay. I'm starting to remember." He started to sniffle. He let the tears roll down his cheeks. "I remember that we used to go to the beach and build sandcastles. She would say, 'Big Brother! Let's build the biggest sandcastle!'" He smiled. "And one summer, we spent hours building a sandcastle big enough to put her dolls in. I'll never forget how happy she was." He laughed. "It was a beach kind of like this."

He stood up. He stretched. He walked around in a circle. Then he sighed. "I'll miss this. Once I go back, I won't be able to do this…" He looked out on the horizon. "But I need to go back. Mom and Dad have been begging me to wake up from the coma. I can hear them now. I can feel them holding my hands." He smiled. "I'll be alright. Life will be difficult at first, but I'll be alright." He looked at Captain Hook. "Benjamin. That's my name." He chuckled. "I'm ready to go home."

Captain Hook nodded. "And I'll be glad to take you. Come aboard." Hook led Benjamin to the ship while Ven watched. As soon as he stepped foot on the boat, Benjamin's panda pajamas became a red t-shirt and jeans. He sat down, and a wheelchair appeared underneath him.

Hook hoist the sails and grabbed the wheel of the ship. "Time to set sail!" he declared. And the ship rose out of the water. Benjamin wheeled over to the side of the ship and waved goodbye to Ven. "Bye friend!"

Ven waved goodbye as well, and watched as Benjamin returned back to his life. When the ship disappeared into the sky, Ven sat down, pulled his knees to his chest, and watched the waves batter the shore.

"So Lil' Timmy left, huh?" said Peter Pan. Ven jumped, startled by Pan's sudden appearance above him. Peter Pan laughed and kicked the back of Ven's head. "But I don't mind losing him, because he was a killjoy anyway."

Ven didn't reply.

"Aw, don't go being all quiet, Dum Dum." He grabbed Ven's arm and forced him to stand up. "Come on, we're doing a ritual back at the Indian Campground." To Tinkerbelle, who was fluttering beside him, Pan said, "Tink, hit him with some Pixie Dust."

Tinkerbelle sprinkled Pixie Dust on Ven, and he began to float. "WHOA!" Ven exclaimed. Pan helped him fly all the way to the Campground.

Once there, Ven saw that the Lost Boys were all gathered around a large treasure chest. Peter said, "Dum Dum, in order to officially become a Lost Boy, you have to put everything you have into our Treasure Stash."

"Treasure Stash?"

Pan nodded. "Yup. Lost Boys don't need anything but the clothes on their back!"

Ven hesitated. Therefore, Peter Pan took the liberty of searching through Ven's inventory. He snatched up all of Ven's munny, his cellphone, his wayfinder and Mizz Piggy doll. Pan threw them into the treasure chest and was about to lock it, when Ven began to protest. "Wait, wait!" Ven said.

But Peter did not hesitate. He locked the treasure chest and tossed the key in his pocket. As soon as that happened, Ven was enveloped in a bright flash of light. He was now wearing a pair of pink-pig-onesie-pajamas. Dum Dum the Lost Boy couldn't help but feel that something was amiss. "B-but… But I don't…"

"Don't what?" Pan asked, his annoyance showing in his tone. Dum Dum stared at the treasure chest, but kept silent. Pan smiled. "Alright men," declared the fae, "Let's go catch some fish for dinner!"


	80. Trust

Dum Dum had been living with Peter Pan and the Lost Boys for about a couple of months now. Not that Dum Dum was counting—each day blended into the next in a continuous adventure. If Peter and the Lost Boys weren't exploring the mountainous landscape of Neverland, then they were playing games, swimming in the ocean, or battling Captain Hook. At night, they would camp under the stars, eating fresh-picked fruit, homemade bread, and roasted fish. They would tell each other scary stories or funny jokes, before cuddling up in their tents to sleep.

It was a fun existence. But there was something amiss. Dum Dum always felt like he was forgetting something important. Like, really, really important. He always felt something tugging at the back of his mind, like something on the tip of his tongue. But he just couldn't figure out what it was. It created a growing sense of uneasiness for Dum Dum, and he couldn't whole-heartedly enjoy his adventures because of it.

This particular day, Peter Pan and the Lost Boys were fighting Hook at Seashore Cove on the north end of the island. Dum Dum, who never quite liked fighting Hook, preferred to stay on the beach and build sandcastles while his friends partook in the festivities. Dum Dum made it a game to see how big he could build a sandcastle while the battle raged on. Last week, he had built a castle as tall as he was by the time Peter and the Lost Boys retreated. Today, he was on track to beating his record, when he was distracted by a familiar voice.

"So this is where you ran off to," a masked boy said, approaching Dum Dum. The boy was clad from head-to-toe in black armor, etched with red, thorn-like engravings. Dum Dum could only stare at him, because he was too confused to speak. Dum Dum was confused, because he was sure that he had never seen this kid before, but he was also sure that he knew who this kid was.

"It's fitting," the masked boy spoke, "that you'd come here. In a way, you've always been here. You've always been in a little island, sheltered from reality, protected by the ocean of your denial."

Dum Dum asked, "Who are you?"

"Would you believe me if I told you?"

Dum Dum didn't respond. Rather, he backed away, because he started to feel afraid of this strange kid.

"Running away again, aren't we?" the masked boy walked toward Dum Dum. "That's fine. Because we both know that you can't stay here forever."

"Leave me alone."

"No."

"LEAVE ME ALONE!"

With a laugh, the masked boy said, "You can't run away forever." He reached out and pressed his hand against Dum Dum's face. "Because I'm going to take you back."

Dum Dum froze.

Luckily for him, right at that moment, Pan and the Lost Boys had finished their battle with Hook, and were running away. Pan flew right in between Dum Dum and the masked boy, separating them. Thrilled, Pan exclaimed, "Looks like we got a new Lost Boy, fellas!" He alighted on the sandy ground and knocked against the boy's mask. "Hello! Anybody home? What's with this mask?" He reached out to take it off.

But the masked boy smacked Pan's hands away. "Back off."

Pan frowned. But then he shrugged it off. "Whatever. Let's see, what are we gonna name you?" Pan rubbed his chin. "How about, Shadow?"

"Shadow?" repeated the masked boy.

"Yup. Because you look like someone's shadow."

"Heh. Okay. I'll play along."

"Good! Alright Shadow, let's go back to the campground and do the Lost Boy Ritual to initiate you into our group."

"Gladly."

Dum Dum felt like Shadow was smirking smugly underneath that mask of his.

Back at the Indian Campground, Pan recited a little lecture. "Lost Boys are the army of Peter Pan, the friends of Peter Pan, and the followers of Peter Pan. Together, we go on adventures, have fun, and play all around Neverland. So, Shadow, are you ready to become one of us?"

"Sure."

"Then you need to put everything you brought into this treasure chest."

Peter Pan opened the chest with his key. The other Lost Boys peeked into it, and saw all the stuff that had been collected in it over the years. "Back up, men," Peter demanded. They backed away. To Shadow, Peter said, "Well?"

"I've got nothing."

"Nothing? At all?"

"Don't believe me? Check."

Peter Pan flew to Shadow and checked his pockets and his item inventory. To his dismay, the boy actually had nothing. Peter insisted, "Well something has to go in this chest. How about that stupid mask?" Peter reached for the mask. Shadow smacked his hand away. Peter insisted, "You need to put the mask in the chest."

"Or else what?"

The frown that spread across Peter's face was demonic. "Put the mask in the chest, Shadow," he growled.

But Shadow didn't. He stood there, resolute.

The tension was building. Peter's frown became increasingly vicious. The creases in Peter's brow intensified, as if his face was a wax mask that melting off. Dum Dum became fearful of what was hiding underneath Peter's façade, so he begged, "Shadow just put the mask in the chest! Please!"

Surprisingly, Shadow acquiesced. "Okay, okay, fine." He removed the mask, revealing a black, spiky mass of hair, golden eyes, and a face strikingly similar to Dum Dum's. He tossed the mask to Peter. Peter put it in the chest and locked it. Once the chest was locked, Shadow glowed with a bright flash of light. He was now wearing a pair of black onesie pajamas in the shape of a flood unversed.

"Great!" said the once again chipper fae. The Lost Boys and Dum Dum exhaled in relief.

But Dum Dum wasn't completely relieved. He felt anxious during dinner around the campfire that evening, because Shadow kept staring at him with those shiny golden eyes, smiling wickedly. That night, as the boys retired to bed, Shadow insisted on sharing a tent with Dum Dum. As the two boys laid next to each other, Shadow whispered, "Good night."

Dum Dum didn't reply. Dum Dum didn't fall sleep at all.

As soon as the sun peeked out at dawn, the exhausted Dum Dum crawled out of the tent and wandered away from camp. He walked to the very edge of a high bluff, overlooking the sea. Sitting on the edge of the bluff, his feet dangling over it, he looked up at the clouds and hoped that the calm atmosphere would quell his unsettled mind.

"Pfft, you just keep running away, huh?" said Shadow, chuckling.

Dum Dum was shocked. "You, you followed me?"

"I'm aptly named, I guess." Shadow sat down beside him.

Dum Dum didn't know what to say.

"And so are you."

Dum Dum lowered his head. He saw the steep drop, and the waves crashing against the rocky shore below. He suddenly became dizzy. So he looked away, choosing to focus on a ladybug that was crawling in the grass beside him. The two were quiet.

"What'd you put in that chest, Dum Dum?" asked Shadow.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean what I said, dumbass. What the fuck did you put in the treasure chest?"

Dum Dum couldn't remember. "Uh…"

"Aren't you curious?"

"Um…"

"You know, he takes those things so that he can lock away your memories and trap you here. Unfortunately, he has to take more than my mask to trap me in his spell. In fact, I'm gonna go get my mask back."

"How? He has the key."

Shadow summoned his keyblade. "I do too." He stood up. "Coming?"

Dum Dum nodded. The two made their way back to the campground, and Shadow pointed his keyblade at the treasure chest. With a flash of light, the chest opened. Shadow reached in and grabbed his mask. But he didn't put it back on. Instead, he held it under his arm. Then he gestured toward the chest, as if telling Dum Dum to take a look.

Although hesitant, Dum Dum did decide to look through it. He immediately recognized something, a pink plushie pig doll with blonde yarn hair and black embroidered eyes. Around her neck was a green, star-shaped necklace. Dum Dum took her out of the treasure chest. He squinted his eyes at her. "Um, this is important I think…" The doll's embroidered eyes locked onto his blue eyes. "Wait…" He dropped her into the treasure chest and grabbed at his head. "Mizz Piggy?" Wincing in pain, he knelt down. "Aqua? Terra? Master Eraqus?"

A scenario flashed before his eyes.

Ven was stood in front of a palace atop a mountain. A brown-haired woman, whose face he couldn't recognize, was holding his hand. "Don't worry Venny," she said. "It'll be okay." She smiled, released his hand, turned around, and walked away. Ven then entered into the front door and was greeted by an old man. "Hello, I am Master Eraqus, and from now on, you will be my student."

"O-okay," Ven answered.

At either side of the old man stood two teenagers, and he introduced them, "This is Aqua and this Terra. Say hello."

"Hello," Ven said.

"Hi!" Terra said, petting Ven's head.

"Hello," said Aqua, as she hugged him. "We'll take good care of you."

"Okay."

Aqua held one of his hands, and Terra took the other. They picked him up and swung him back and forth.

"We're going to have lots of fun," Terra said.

"And we'll be a family, because that's what you want, right?" asked Aqua.

Ven smiled. "Yeah!"

And Ven woke up. He was lying on a sleeping bag in the middle of a tent. He was wearing his regular clothes again: his black and white pants, his black shirt underneath a black-and-white jacket, and shoulder plate and pieces of his armor. Ven sat up and rubbed his head. "Where am I?"

"You passed out," answered Vanitas. He wasn't wearing his mask, but he was dressed in his black-and-red body armor, once again. He was sitting in front of Ven, with arms crossed in front of his chest.

"Passed out?"

"Yup. It's really pathetic how fragile your memories are."

"Who are you?"

"I'm you, remember?"

Ven shook his head. "No."

"Vanitas."

"Vanitas?"

Vanitas nodded. "I'm you, but you don't want to believe that I'm you. And that's why I hate you."

"What are you talking about?"

Vanitas leaned forward so that his face was an inch away from Ven's face. "That's not how it happened. Stop making shit up. Stop creating false memories. Mom didn't send us to Eraqus when we were little. That's a lie you've been telling yourself because you couldn't remember anything about Xehanort or Big Bro. But I remember. I remember everything."

Ven shook his head. "I don't understand."

"You think you remember everything now, right? Aqua, Terra, Master Eraqus?"

Ventus nodded.

"Lies. All false memories. None of that shit is real. The only real thing in your life is me." Vanitas smirked devilishly. "The only real thing in your life is our purpose. Do you know what our purpose is?"

Ven shook his head.

"Master Xehanort's plan. Part one. Separate Ventus into a heart of pure light and a heart of pure darkness. Make them fight to forge the chi-blade. Part two. Overwhelm Terra's heart with darkness, so that Master Xehanort can steal his body to use as a new vessel. Part three. Use the chi-blade to unlock Kingdom Hearts, gain ultimate knowledge, and obtain unlimited power. Kill Master Eraqus, Aqua, and anyone else who stands in his way." Vanitas backed away from Ven. "We're nothing but vessels for the sake of Master Xehanort's grand scheme. Our purpose is to forge our hearts into the ultimate weapon. I know that. So you must know that. Right?"

Ven shook his head.

"Go ask your Master, then," Vanitas suggested, while tossing his mask up and down.

Ven didn't move.

"Or do you want to stay here, in Neverland, forever? No more Aqua, no more Terra, no more Eraqus? No more Hayner, Pence, Olette? No more school, no more keyblade training?"

"Shut up!" Ven barked. He took a deep breath. "Of course I don't want to stay here!" He stood up and marched out of the tent. Vanitas followed him.

On the outside, Pan was waiting for them. He was alone, because the Lost Boys had gone off on their own adventure while Ventus had been asleep. Pan, his face ugly with anger, shouted, "How dare you open the chest!"

Vanitas simply rolled his eyes, but Ven said, "Fuck you," and pushed Peter aside. Peter Pan was taken aback. He watched as Ven activated his keyblade armor, opened a portal, summoned his keyblade glider, and left Neverland.

Peter then turned his anger to Vanitas. The fae's face contorted into the shape of a monstrous being, something from a child's worst nightmare. "How dare you open the chest?" he roared.

But such a sight was nothing new to Vanitas. He simply put his mask back on and asked, "What? You gonna fight me?"

Peter's monstrous face returned to normal. He growled, and flew away.

Vanitas crawled back into the tent, sat down, and said, "It's almost time..."


	81. Mizz Piggy and Pixie Dust

As he was scaling the mountains of Neverland, Notus saw a young woman with the prettiest shade of blue hair. She wore a black, halter-top romper with a corset around her waist. On her arms were pale-blue flowy sleeves, around her waist, she wrapped a light blue jacket. She wore thigh-high black socks, metallic ankle boots, and a shoulder plate of armor. She wielded a keyblade. Her face seemed familiar to him.

Notus stared at her from a distance, racking his brain to remember who she was. "Blue hair, blue hair…" he whispered to himself. "Most people don't have blue hair. I should remember if I met a girl with blue hair…" He tapped his forefingers against his chin. "Especially one as hot as she is… Oh! Hot damn! I remember!" He clapped his hands. "Hot Damn! What was her name?"

He faintly recollected the scene from his first day at the Land of Departure, four years ago. "Hot damn!" shouted that one creepy dude.

"Like what you see, creep?" the girl had asked.

"Like it? Take me to McRonalds cuz I'm loving it!"

She slapped him.

Or something like that. He couldn't really remember.

But if his memory was even somewhat correct, then that means that this girl could possibly be a student of Master Eraqus. And Ventus had mentioned that he was a student of Master Eraqus. So the odds were that this girl knew Ven!

So Notus ran after her. Unfortunately, he was on the other side of a waterfall that divided the mountain into two. She was walking pretty fast, and was about to disappear around the side of a mountain. "Hey! Hey girl!" Notus shouted. He waved his hands about.

But she didn't hear him, because she was hyper-focused on getting to wherever she was going. That, or she was ignoring him. "Hey! Over here! Hey! Look! Listen!" She still wasn't paying attention to anything behind her. She was about to move out of his line of sight. So Notus jumped around and shouted, "Hot damn McRonalds! Take me to McRonalds! I'm loving it!"

Aqua's body tensed. She turned around and finally acknowledged Notus. She took a brief moment to stare at him, as if trying to figure out whether or not she knew him. And apparently, she didn't remember him, because she seemed confused. So Notus shouted, "It's me! Notus! Remember me?"

She shook her head.

"I got sick that first day with Master Eraqus! The dust! Remember?"

Aqua's face looked like she had an epiphany. She shouted out, "Yeah! I remember! Hi! I'm kind of busy now, so I don't have time to catch up! I'll talk to you later!" She turned to leave.

"Wait! Ventus! Do you know Ventus?"

Aqua once again tensed. "How do you know Ventus?"

"I'm his brother!"

Her jaw dropped.

"I swear I'm not lying! Come over and I'll explain everything!"

So Aqua did. Standing beside Notus, she asked, "What are you talking about?"

Notus said, "I'm Ventus's older brother, Notus. We got separated years ago, and I found him at the tournament in the coliseum this afternoon. But um, well, he ran off. So I followed him. Do you know why he would have done that?"

"Older brother, huh?"

"I swear I'm not lying. Look at me. Don't we look similar?"

Aqua inspected Notus's face. They did look similar. His hair was spiky and blonde, his eyes were light blue, and he had a similar face and nose shape to Ven. Yet he was taller, bulkier—he had the build of an athlete. "So if you really are his older brother, why did he run away from you?"

"I don't know why, but when I spoke to him, he didn't remember me. So I tried to jog his memory, and he got really upset."

Aqua paused. She brushed her bangs out of her face and huffed. "How did you two get separated?"

"Um… It's difficult to talk about…" Notus nervously scratched the back of his neck. His eyes drifted away, to stare at a weird rock formation.

Aqua took a deep breath. Quietly, she began, "Was it because of…" She hesitated. But she decided to ask. "Was it because of abuse?"

Notus's eyes tripled in size. He met Aqua's eyes and asked, "What did he tell you?"

"He didn't tell me anything. He doesn't remember anything from before he arrived at the Land of Departure with us. But I had a suspicion that he was abused, because of the way he acts and the scars that he has."

"The way he acts?"

"When I first met him, he had no life in his eyes. He didn't know who he was. He always seemed defensive around me, and he suffered from panic attacks and nightmares. Eventually he started to feel more at ease, yet he never remembered anything from his past. He also seemed to create new memories instead. I'm not a doctor or anything, but I researched his symptoms and I think he has a condition called dissociative amnesia. That's usually caused by trauma. And looking at those scars of his, I guessed that he was abused as a child."

Notus kept silent. His body began to tremble.

Aqua waved her hands quickly, as if swatting the idea away. "Never mind. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have asked." She placed her hands on her chest. "That was wrong of me."

"No, you don't need to apologize. If anyone should apologize, it should be me. I'm a piece of shit."

"What do you mean?"

Notus grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "I need to find Ventus! I need to apologize for not protecting him!"

"Calm down, Notus. Tell me what's going on."

He shook her faster. "It's all my fault that it got as bad as it did! I shouldn't have ignored it!"

She broke away from his grasp. "I don't understand."

"I should have said something! But I didn't. I just let it happen!" He began to pace in a circle, his hands grasping either side of his head. His voice became high-pitched, as if he was running out of air. Notus breathed quickly. His eyes were wild. "But I was just a kid! I was scared. I didn't even know what to do. I mean, I knew I should have done something, but I couldn't! So I just let it happen."

"Shhh, it's okay," Aqua said, trying to calm him. "It's okay."

"No it's not!" he whimpered. "I'm such a piece of shit!"

"Deep breaths. Deep breaths." She demonstrated, taking in a deep breath, holding it for a second, and then exhaling. "Deep breaths."

He followed her example. His breathing slowed, and, over the course of several minutes, he was able to regain his composure. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, McRonalds. I shouldn't be dumping all this emotional junk on you."

Aqua shook her head, and gave him a supportive smile. "My name's Aqua. And it's okay. Ven's my friend and I want to help him in any way that I can. And if that means reuniting him with his older brother, then that's what I'll do." She paused. "But Ven's memories are terribly fragile. If he hears something that doesn't match with what he thinks is true, he freaks out. I think that was why he ran away. I don't think it'll be good for him to speak to you now."

Notus sighed. "Yeah, that makes sense."

"Let's just focus on finding him first. Okay? Then we'll see what happens."

He nodded.

"Do you know where he went?"

"Not exactly. But I know he's on this world somewhere. I saw him land here an hour ago. But it's like he disappeared. I've been looking all over but I can't find him."

"Let's look for him together."

"Okay." He exhaled. "Thanks."

The two began hiking along the mountain. Aqua seemed intense, scouting the area, attempting to call him with her cellphone, and occasionally calling out, "Ven! Ven? Where are you?" Notus couldn't help but admire her levelheadedness. He said, "You're really amazing."

She blushed. "Huh?"

"I mean, you're handling this really well." He scratched the back of his neck. "I just had a major freakout, yet you're not asking questions or bothered or whatever."

"Well, that's because I've had a lot of training, I guess," she semi-lied. Of course she had learned to stay calm to help Ven during his episodes of panic, but she wasn't a professional.

"Are you still a student under Master Eraqus?" he asked, as the two progressed along an uphill path.

"Yes," she instinctively answered. Then she corrected herself, "Well, technically no. I just earned the Mark of Mastery three days ago."

"You're a keyblade MASTER?!"

"Yeah I guess," she humbly answered, "but I'm still learning." She sighed and brushed her hair out of her face with the side of her hand. "For instance, I shouldn't have separated from Ven. I knew that he was in a fragile emotional state, so I should have stayed with him. But that's a lesson learned. I'm going to fix my mistake, and make better decisions the next time." She faced Notus. "That's what Master Eraqus taught me."

Notus smiled at her, his eyes sparkling, and his cheeks flushing. "That's really profound."

"Thanks. Did you continue to be a student of the keyblade?"

"Yeah. I've been studying under Phil for the past few years. He's a chubby half-goat dude."

"Oh that pervert?"

"Yeah, he flirts with anything female. I've told him that it's sexual harassment, but he won't listen. I'm sorry for whatever he did to you."

"When we first arrived at the coliseum, that goat guy catcalled me. Ven got so angry," she giggled. "It was funny, because Ven _rarely_ behaves that way around me. Usually he acts so tsundere."

"Tsundere?"

"He acts mean to hide the fact that he actually likes me. He's so adorable."

"What else does he do?"

"What do you mean?"

"Does he still like reading books? When he was little, he loved reading books. He was such a smart kid. But he was really shy. He had a hard time making friends."

"He's really smart. He gets all A's. And he also has good friends too."

Notus exhaled in relief. "That's good. That's good…" Notus stopped walking. "Is Ven happy?"

Aqua turned to face him. "Yeah. I think so."

Notus scratched the back of his neck. "Then maybe I shouldn't meet him. Maybe I shouldn't make him remember me or his past. He got really upset when he saw me. He ran away. I don't want to do that to him again. So maybe it's better if I don't bother him."

"Well, if I can offer my opinion, I think it's important for Ven to be able to deal with his past trauma in a positive way. He can't keep living his life by blocking out entire sections of his memory."

"Entire sections?"

She nodded, and kept walking. "He forgets—"

Right then, an unversed dropped down from the sky. It was a strange looking one this time. It was shaped like a clear, plastic ziplock sandwich bag, one-fourth filled with sparkly black powder. It had arms and legs and two large yellow googly eyes on the front. It didn't have a mouth, but it had a large, prominent aquiline nose, with flared nostrils.

"Oh fuck me, another unversed?" Aqua swore, summoning her keyblade.

Notus staggered back, falling to his butt, and scuttling away. "Wh-what the hell is that?"

"It's a monster. Stay back." She raised her blade and aimed at it. "Bubble beam!" she shouted. A flurry of bubbles sprayed from the tip of her blade, and exploded against the weird-art-project-like unversed.

"No it's not just a monster!" Notus yelled, backing away. "The monsters were like those back at the coliseum. This is... this is something else!"

Aqua ignored him, jumped into the air, and smashed her blade against its left googly eye. The unversed reacted by huffing its nostrils, attempting to sprinkle Aqua with some of the contents of its insides. She put up a shield, and rolled away. She then ran towards its legs, and attacked with a flurry of strikes. Backing away, she shot fire, thunder, and finally blizzard magic at it.

Another huff from the unversed. She shielded herself. She then charged at it and twirled around, whipping a whirlwind that caused the unversed to wrinkle up and implode. POOF! It dropped munny, and exploded into black sparkles.

"That wasn't so bad," Aqua said to herself as the remnants of the unversed rained down. "Notus are you okay?" She looked around. Notus was nowhere to be found. "Notus?" She put her hands on her hips. "Did he run away? What a punk. Whatever. I guess I'll go find Ven myself."

She turned around to continue forward on her path.

Unfortunately, her path was suddenly filled to the brim with rainbow-colored Flood unversed. Without hesitation, they swarmed at her. She batted them away with her keyblade. "Fire!" she said, summoning a ring of fire around her to fend them off. "Thunder! Thunder!" she yelled, striking more and more of them down.

But they kept coming. She backed up. She coated her blade with ice magic and began to strike them down individually. She summoned blocks of ice to encircle her and raised glaciers in the middle of the field to ward them off.

But they kept coming. She kept backing away. They kept pressuring her, forcing her back until she was steps away from the edge of a cliff. She panted heavily as she backed up even more. She was now surrounded by the colorful monsters. And they jumped onto her. They pinned down her arms, pushed her to the floor and held her down as she screamed.

They just held her down. They didn't hurt her. Yet, she kept screaming. And screaming. And screaming. Until finally, one of the unversed, a bright blue one said, "AQUA! SNAP OUT OF IT!"

"Huh?" She blinked a few times. With each blink, the number of Floods surrounding her halved, until finally it was only five of them holding her. With a final blink, she realized that they weren't unversed at all! Four of them were little boys wearing animal-shaped onesie pajamas. And the bright blue one was Notus.

The look of sheer confusion on her face caused Notus to say, "I think she's snapped out of it."

All of the kids exhaled. She sat up and asked, "What happened?"

"The thing you fought, after you killed it, it poisoned you with its powder and you went crazy and started attacking thin air. You were like that for ten minutes, and it got to the point where you almost fell off a cliff. Luckily these guys wandered by and helped me pin you down."

Aqua's eyes widened. She turned her head slightly and realized that her hair was dangling over the edge of steep ledge that was probably a two hundred meter fall to the rocky shore below. Although she could float if she focused hard enough, or she could have activated her keyblade glider, she doubted that she was in the correct state of mind to do that. Sitting up, she said, "Thank you. Thank you so much. That could have been the end of me."

"Are you okay lady?" asked one of the boys. "Would you like to come to our campsite to rest?"

She nodded. "If you don't mind, yes." She felt like she was developing a headache.

"You can sleep in my tent!" suggested another kid.

"No, cuz Dum Dum is sleeping in your tent," said yet another.

"Oh yeah. Well whatever. Let's just go." They led Aqua and Notus further up a hill and to a campsite. There they allowed Aqua to sit inside the largest tent for a little while. It was big enough to accommodate ten people, and that's what almost ended up happening. Notus sat beside her, and the four boys that had held her down brought her water and bread and cuddled up around her. They started asking her questions. "Where'd you come from?" asked the first one.

"I'm from a different world," she answered, while sipping the water.

"WHAT!" they all exclaimed. A second boy asked, "How'd you get here?"

"I flew."

"No way!" they all chimed in unison. A third one asked, "Why were you acting all crazy?"

"A monster attacked me," she said, suddenly grabbing him in a hug. He burst into laughter as she tickled him. "He fought me like this. And then he sprinkled crazy powder on me." She released him.

The fourth boy asked his friends, "You think that's what happened to Dum Dum? Maybe that's why he was passed out on the ground this morning."

"Maybe," answered the other three in unison.

Aqua asked, "Who's Dum Dum?"

One boy said "He's one of us Lost Boys. We hang out all the time."

Another said, "Wanna meet him? I'll go get him."

"You don't have too—"

But he ran off before she could protest. She sighed. She leaned back. "Notus, I'm gonna rest for a little bit, then we can keep searching for Ven. Okay?"

Notus nodded. "Sure."

She closed her eyes for a few minutes. But then the Lost Boy that had ran out returned with another boy. "Hey Lady, I couldn't find Dum Dum, but I found Shadow."

Aqua opened her eyes and sat up. "Huh?"

It was a boy, clad a black bodysuit, engraved with a red design on the chest plate, and wearing a mask.

Aqua's eyes widened. She thought, _The mask_. _Is he the masked boy Ven was talking about?_ "S-shadow?" she repeated.

Vanitas chuckled. "That's not my real name," he told them. He summoned his keyblade. Aqua and Notus gasped. "A keyblade!?" they said in unison.

He pointed his keyblade upwards and shot a fireball. The tent caught fire. Aqua, Notus and the Lost Boys jumped out of it. "Run!" she told the kids.

They wasted no time abandoning their campground.

Aqua, her blade drawn, eyed the masked boy. Now she was pretty sure that this was the same Masked Boy that Ven had mentioned earlier, the one who had attacked him and Mickey the Mouse. "Who are you, and what is your purpose?" she yelled.

"Oh Aqua, you can't tell who I am? That's a shame," the masked boy said. He walked toward her. "Give me a hug! I really need one! You give the best hugs!"

She was really confused. "I'm serious! Tell me who you are!"

"I really like your hugs. They're so soft! I really can't thank Her enough for making me the perfect height so my head nestles right on your bobbies." He outstretched his arms.

Aqua backed away. "Last warning kid. Take one step closer and I'll attack."

So Vanitas stopped. "You really can't tell who I am Aqua? Look into your heart! I promise you'll see it! Or maybe it'd help if I took off my mask?" He did so, revealing his face, his black, spiky hair, his golden, beady eyes.

"Ventus?" Notus said.

"Ventus?" Aqua repeated.

Up until that moment, Vanitas had not noticed the young man standing behind Aqua. Vanitas looked him right in the eyes. "Big Bro?"

Notus returned the gaze, eyes wide, jaw dropped. "Ventus? Is that really you?"

"Or everything that's fucked up about him."

"What do you mean?"

"Don't pretend you don't know. Or maybe that's all you're good for, isn't it, Big Bro?"

Notus's face winced in pain. "I… I didn't mean to…" He trailed off.

Aqua, however, didn't understand what was going on. "That's not Ventus," she told Notus.

"Oh, but I am," Vanitas told her. "We're half and half. But I'm the better half I think. She told me so."

"Who?! What are you talking about?!" She was becoming frustrated.

Vanitas ignored her and fixed his attention to Notus. "Why are you here?"

"I-I just want to say I'm sorry," stammered the older brother. "I'm sorry for pretending that it wasn't happening. I'm sorry I didn't protect you. I'm sorry that we got split up and I'm sorry I didn't come find you sooner. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry Venny."

"Okay." Vanitas tossed his mask up and down. "Now what?"

"I… I … I apologized, so…"

"Did you think that I'd burst into tears and forgive you?"

Notus dropped to his knees. "I… I guess not."

Vanitas caught his mask and put it away in his item inventory. "You know, She made this world and all of us in it. She made the good, the bad, the ugly. She made her, you and me—respectively. She made us all! And she ordained our destinies with the click-clack of her keypad. I just act out her will." He summoned his keyblade. "I think." He ran toward Notus, and raising his blade.

Aqua jumped in front to block it. Vanitas kept swinging. Aqua kept blocking. "Stop it!" she yelled.

Vanitas stopped. "Okay." He walked away. "I don't want to fight you anyway."

Aqua still kept her guard up as she asked again, "Who are you?"

"Vanitas. V-a-n-i-t-a-s. Vanitas."

"What do you mean by 'half-and-half?' How do you know Ventus?"

"Are you that dumb, Aqua?" He chuckled. "Or maybe you just don't want to believe it."

Aqua blinked several times. "I don't understand…" She turned to Notus. "I don't understand!"

Notus was silent, and a few tears streamed down his cheeks.

Vanitas wandered around the campground, peeking into tents and kicking around rocks. Aqua fixed her gaze on him, still in battle stance, just in case he decided to attack again. The black-haired boy seemed to have lost interest in her and Notus, however. He was more preoccupied with shuffling through a giant treasure chest that was in the middle of the campground.

"Ooo!" he exclaimed as he pulled out a doll. But it wasn't just any random doll.

"Mizz Piggy!" Aqua shouted.

"Ven seriously left her here?" Vanitas threw the doll into the air and caught it. "Mizz Piggy! Mizz Piggy!" He cuddled it. "He really must have lost his mind. He loves this doll more than anything." He took the wayfinder from around her neck and held it up to the light. "It's helped him through so many tough times, so many sleepless nights, so many fears and insecurities." He pocketed the wayfinder, and placed a kiss on the doll's forehead. "In fact, this doll symbolizes everything good that's ever happened to him. It makes me jealous."

Vanitas ripped its head off. He tossed Mizz Piggy's lifeless body and head in opposite directions.

Then he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his side. He felt his body tumble into the dirt and roll. Once he regained his composure, he looked up to see Aqua's furious glare. "How dare you!" she yelled as she picked up the pieces of the stuffed animal. "How dare you destroy Mizz Piggy!"

"It's just a FUCKING DOLL!" Vanitas yelled, rushing toward her with his own blade.

And they fought. Although she was still exhausted from her previous battles, Aqua was able to fend off his attacks. "Poor Aqua," Vanitas taunted, "aren't you tired? Tired of being the one to clean up everyone's messes? Aren't you tired of being confused? Aren't you tired of all Terra and Ven's bullshit?!"

He tried to thrust his blade through her. She dodged and swung at him. It was an afterimage. He appeared behind her. She put up a barrier just in time to block an attack. She countered. He disappeared. But his voice still spoke, "Aren't you just physically tired? Three days of nonstop fighting! Or was it four?" Vanitas attacked from above. She deflected it and rolled out of the way.

He stood in front of her, pointing his keyblade at her. "You just want to cry, don't you?" Vanitas continued. "You want to cry so badly right now. You want to cry because you're upset about losing Ven again. You want to cry because you finally confirmed what you suspected about Ven all along. You want to cry because you're pretty sure Notus and Ventus had pretty shitty childhoods. We did. Trust me."

Tears formed in Aqua's eyes. "Shut up!" she yelled.

"You can cry in front of me, Aqua. Go ahead. I really want to see you cry. It'll make me feel less empty inside." He actually smiled. "Don't you know misery loves company?"

Aqua hurled her keyblade at him, knocking his out of his hand. Then she rushed at him and slapped him across the face. Hard. Like, really, really hard. Vanitas was stunned.

Her keyblade reappeared in her hand. His didn't. Aqua now had the upper hand. She attacked and attacked and attacked, battering Vanitas so hard that he curled up into fetal position. He tried to block with his arms, but Aqua smacked him with her blade, again, and again, and again, and again. He cried out in pain. But she kept hitting him. And hitting him. And hitting him. And hitting him. Until finally Vanitas cried out, "STOP! MOM! STOP IT!"

Aqua froze.

That when Notus grabbed Aqua's waist and yanked her back. "Are you insane?" he yelled. "Are you trying to kill him?!"

Aqua dropped her keyblade. "No… I just…"

Notus tossed her aside, and rushed to Vanitas's aid. "Are you okay?"

Vanitas trembled and sobbed. "Everyone always hits me…"

Aqua covered her mouth with her hands and backed away. "Why did I? I didn't mean to…"

Notus hugged Vanitas. "It's okay. I've got you."

"No it's not okay! It's never okay! It hurts!" shouted Vanitas.

"I'm so sorry," Aqua said, approaching Vanitas.

"Go away! Go away!" the boy screamed. "You always do this! Then you always say sorry! I hate you! I hate you!"

Aqua insisted, "Let me heal you. I can—"

"Go away!" Vanitas screamed.

Aqua backed away. Then she turned around and ran.

Once she was out of sight, Vanitas sat up. Notus said, "No, Ventus, stay down and rest." Vanitas burst into laughter, saying, "I'm not Ventus. I'm Vanitas. And I'm not hurt." He stood up and bowed. "I'm just a great actor."

"What?"

"I don't need to explain myself to you." Summoning his keyblade, Vanitas struck Notus on the temple, knocking him out. Then Vanitas put on his mask again. "The end of my life is almost near. I'm so happy!" He paused. "I think…" And he walked away.


	82. Goodbye, Master

Ven landed his keyblade glider in the courtyard of the palace. There, Master Eraqus was sweeping away fallen leaves and bramble this cool, Tuesday autumn afternoon. Upon noticing Ven, the old man stopped sweeping, ran to him, and embraced him. "Ventus! Where have you been?" he asked. "It's been three days!"

Ven deactivated his armor. "It's only been three days?" he asked.

"Only?! Ventus, three days is a long time to run off!"

Ven thought, _So that means all the time I spent in Neverland was actually a short time in the real world._ Staring at the ground, Ven chuckled softly. "Since when do you care where I go, Old Man?"

Eraqus groaned. "Ven, I was very concerned! You shouldn't run off like that! Weren't you with Aqua? Where is she?"

Ven smiled. Tears pooled up in his eyes. "You're such a useless Old Man." A few drops fell onto the floor below. "But I wouldn't trade you for anyone else in the world."

"Are you crying? What's wrong?" Master Eraqus pressed his hand gently against the boy's cheek. "Don't sulk. You know I hate sulking. Tell me what's wrong."

"What's my past?"

"What do you mean?"

Ven sniffled. "I seriously need to know. Where did I come from?"

"Is that why you're crying?" The Master shook his head. "That's no reason to—"

"WHERE DID I COME FROM?" Ven shrieked.

Master Eraqus was surprised.

"I really need to know, now. Old Man, please, I need to know **right now**."

"I've spoiled you too much. Now you've become a crybaby." He wiped Ven's tears with the long sleeves of his robe. "Listen, Ventus, if you must know, then I shall tell you." He took a deep breath. "You were placed under my care about three years ago. Before then, you were Master Xehanort's student."

Ven cringed. No wonder that man had felt so familiar. "I was Master Xehanort's student?"

Eraqus nodded. "Yes, you had been his student for four years. Unfortunately, one day he pushed you too hard, and darkness overwhelmed your heart. In order to save you from the darkness, he split your heart into two: one of pure darkness, and one of pure light. You are the heart of light—although you act like such a brat that it's difficult to believe that you are." He chuckled, because he meant that affectionately. "Since then, Xehanort has been overseeing your dark half."

"That must be Vanitas!" Ven realized. "So Vanitas really is me!"

"Who is Vanitas?"

"Three plus four is seven," mumbled Ven as he counted on his fingers. "Fifteen minus seven…" He spoke up, "So I was eight years old when I first became that man's student?"

Master Eraqus nodded.

"But what was before then? Where did I come from?"

"That, you must ask Master Xehanort. All I know is that he adopted you from 'a wretched place'. Those where his exact words."

Ven further inquired, "Did I have a family? Did I have a brother?"

"I don't know."

The boy shouted, "You didn't think to ask?"

Master Eraqus shrugged. "Nope."

"You didn't think to ask questions about the random boy that was placed under your care?" Ven shoved his master. "The boy with no memories?" He kept shoving. "The boy with a broken heart?"

"I didn't particularly care about any of that," Eraqus responded calmly. "I only cared that you had a safe home to live in. I did not want to dwell on your past. I wanted to shape a brighter future for you. Honestly, Ventus, I don't care who you _were_. I only care who you are and who you will be."

"But my past is important!" Ven snapped. "My past is coming back to haunt me! There's a boy in mask, and his name is Vanitas, and he's the personification of the darkness of my heart. And Master Xehanort's plan is to make us fight to forge something called the chi-blade!"

"Forge a chi-blade?" Master Eraqus immediately flashed back to about four years ago, when Master Xehanort had requested a strange book from him. _Is this fool dabbling in these foolish experiments again?_ Eraqus had thought. But he decided to afford his old friend the benefit of the doubt. And later, during a phone call conversation, Master Xehanort had sounded troubled when he had asked Eraqus a question about Ven. "He didn't mention anything about a chi-blade, right? If he mentions anything about that, ignore it. Poor boy could be a tad delusional."

Now, Ven said, "I don't know what it is, but it sounds dangerous. Master Xehanort wants it for something dangerous."

"To plunge the world into darkness," Master Eraqus muttered. He recalled the time when he and Xehanort were in the prime of their adult years, and a similar event had happened. Master Xehanort had told Master Eraqus about his attempts to understand darkness. Eraqus told Xehanort that these notions were foolish. The argument devolved into a bloody battle. One that lasted three full days.

Eraqus could never forget that battle, for it had scared his face. Neither side won. It was a stalemate, and they had both retreated: Eraqus to dwell in the light, and Xehanort to dwell in the darkness. And it would have stayed liked that if Xehanort had not reached out to Eraqus many years later to apologize. An apology which Eraqus, now in retrospect, realized had been accepted too rashly. Eraqus had been too eager to make amends.

He had also been too blind to Xehanort's misdeeds. And if what Ventus was say was true, then… In essence, Eraqus had unwittingly assisted Xehanort in damaging a little boy's heart. Eraqus had once again doubted the lengths that Xehanort would take to achieve those deranged dreams of his.

Not anymore.

This time, he would protect Ventus.

Master Eraqus told Ven, "Then we must never let that happen." He seized Ven's hand and led him up the stairs, inside the palace. "We must hide you, protect you from Xehanort's grasp. Then I shall defeat him once and for all."

"Protect me?"

"Yes, of course. I love you as if you were my own child. That is why as long as I live, I'll do my best to protect you."

"Master…" Ven mumbled.

Master Eraqus's eyes widened. "You finally called me 'Master!'" The old man smiled and pulled Ven into a hug. Ven sniffled, and blinked back tears, saying, "Don't get all sentimental Old Man. It was a mistake," as he smiled.

Together, the Master and Student rushed along the corridors of the palace. They passed by the throne room, where Aqua and Terra had taken their Mark of Mastery exam. There, sitting on one of the thrones, leaning forward with his fingers interlocked, was none other than the Master Xehanort. "Eraqus," he called out, "to where are you rushing off?"

Master Eraqus summoned his keyblade. "Xehanort!"

Standing up, Master Xehanort placed his hands behind is back. "Why do you summon your weapon, friend?" The wicked smile that spread across his face indicated that the question was rhetorical.

"What is this insanity that I've been told you are planning?" retorted Master Eraqus, while pushing Ven behind him. Xehanort laughed. "What have you been told, Eraqus?"

"What is this chi-blade that you are attempting to create?"

"And who told you of that?"

"Why do you avoid my questions?"

"You shall have your answers, then, Eraqus," Xehanort said as he stretched out his hand. "Simply give Ventus to me and you shall know everything."

"No, Xehanort, answer me. Is it true that you manipulated Ventus for your malicious purposes?"

"Of course not. I've only given that wretched child a second hope at life. A life full of purpose. A chance to become the key that unlocks the secrets of Kingdom Hearts!"

Ven grasped at Master Eraqus's clothes and muttered, "Purpose…"

Eraqus shook his head. "No. No more. I cannot allow you to continue down this path anymore, Xehanort! I once knew you as friend… But your actions have given me no other choice but to strike you down!"

Xehanort summoned his keyblade. "Go ahead then." He began to inch closer to Eraqus and Ven.

"Ventus! You must run!" Eraqus ordered.

Ven, trembling, summoned his own keyblade. "No, Master, I'll fight beside you."

"No, his goal is to get to you. I will fight to stop him."

"But—"

Xehanort broke into a sprint and slammed his keyblade against Eraqus's blade. Eraqus parried the strike and summoned balls of light all around the room, like the ones he had created for the Mark of Mastery Exam. The light balls slammed into Xehanort, who swatted them away like flies.

But they served their purpose, for they were merely a distraction. Eraqus and Ven ran up the stairs, toward the living room. "Ventus, listen to me! You must run!"

Ven burst into tears. "No! No! I don't know where to go!"

"You must find Aqua and tell her of the situation. She'll protect you—" Eraqus quickly dodged a beam of darkness that would have blown his brains out. "Eraqus," Xehanort said, "stop this foolish attempt to thwart my plans. I have already won." He appeared behind them in a portal of darkness. Eraqus replied by shooting a blast of light at Xehanort. Xehanort blocked it with a wall of darkness, and continued, "I shall have the boy, Eraqus."

"Never." Eraqus raised his keyblade, boxing Xehanort in a barrier of light. Then he swung his blade, creating light swords that slammed through the box, impaling the old man.

Or at least, a dark aura substitute of the old man. The real Xehanort teleported away. Eraqus turned to Ven, and said, "Please, Ventus, listen to me. Find Aqua. Tell her what's going on. She'll protect you."

Ven was a mess, sobbing, shaking. "But Master I can't…"

"Ven. Shh. It'll be okay." He stroked Ven's hair. Then he opened up a portal, and shoved Ven into it. "Go."

Sobbing, Ven took once last glance over his shoulder. Master Eraqus smiled a warm smile. "Goodbye, Ventus."

Ven smiled as well. "Goodbye, Master." And the boy disappeared.


	83. Mark of Mastery

Xehanort's laughter echoed throughout the palace. The man appeared before Eraqus in a darkness portal. "How sentimental."

"Xehanort," Eraqus said, assuming battle stance.

"So you think you can defeat me, Eraqus? Laughable."

"If I cannot sway your mind, Xehanort, then I must take your life. I shall not allow you to hurt Ventus anymore."

"Really? If you are looking for the boy's best interest, then it would have been better to kill him, to put him out of his misery! For as long as he is alive, then his life belongs to me, for the purpose of forging the ultimate weapon, to unlock Kingdom Hearts!" He pointed to Eraqus with his keyblade. "Eraqus! You shall be the one to die today if you do not step aside!"

"What has become of you, Xehanort? What happened to the young man that I used to know?" Eraqus lowered his blade. "What of the days when we would climb up to the roof to read our dirty magazines?"

Xehanort hadn't blushed in such a long time that he forgot how it felt to do so.

That was the problem with Eraqus. He was such a fucking idiot! He was so stupid, so genuine, so… Eraqus! He was the kind of man who was earnest, who loved people with all his heart, and who always tried to see the good in everyone.

He was such a creature of the light that it angered Xehanort.

"Enough!" roared the villain as he charged toward Eraqus.

And the bloody battle began.

…

[Flashback]

About forty years ago.

The night before the Mark of Mastery exam.

And the three students were laying on a grassy field on the side of the mountain, stargazing. Trisha and Xehanort were somber, mentally preparing themselves for the day that they had all been training for. Eraqus, however, was all smiles. He said, "Hahahaha, I can't believe Old Man is finally gonna let us take the Mark of Mastery Exam! We've been training forever for it!" He wiped his nose with the sleeve of his shirt. "I'm totally gonna ace it!"

"Eraqus you dumbass," Trisha replied, rolling her eyes, "can't you be serious for once?"

Xehanort didn't even entertain Eraqus with a response.

Eraqus rolled over to face Trisha. His long black hair was usually tied back into a ponytail, but tonight, he had let it down. The wind whipped it around his face. "I _am_ serious Trish. I'm gonna become _Master_ Eraqus tomorrow." He leaned toward her. "And if I do, will you give me a kiss?"

"I'll punch you in the mouth."

"With your lips?"

"With my fist."

"Why are you so mean to me? I know you love me."

"Geez Eraqus, how deluded are you?"

Xehanort stood up. He was growing tired of his fellow students' noise. He began to walk away.

"See, you've pissed off Xehanort," Trisha chided Eraqus.

"No, you did," Eraqus said. "Because he knows that you love me and he's tired of you denying it."

As Xehanort was walking away, he noticed a shooting star zoom across the sky. Then another. And another. He pointed upward, "Meteor shower."

Eraqus and Trisha stopped arguing. They looked up. They smiled.

…

Trisha, Eraqus and Xehanort battled the glowing balls of light while their Master and Master Yen Sid watched.

"Grah!" yelled Trisha as she cleared the light orbs away with her magic.

Xehanort grunted as he used quick strikes to smash the orbs.

Eraqus was a heavy hitter, powering up his keyblade with light and destroying the orbs.

Their Master and Yen Sid watched carefully, and at the end of the first test, they made a decision. "Trisha, your magical prowess is far superior than any student I've trained in years," Master Yen Sid told her. "It makes me wish that you had come to me to study to be a wizard, rather than a keyblade master. You will advance to the next round."

"Thank you," she said, bowing.

"Eraqus," said their master, "you have demonstrated your strength and mastery of the light in your performance today. You too will advance to the next round."

"Pfft, really?" asked a blushing Eraqus.

"However, Xehanort, both Master Yen Sid and I noticed that you were struggling to control the darkness in your heart as you fought. This shows us that you still need more training. For that, you have failed his part of the Exam."

Xehanort's eyes widened. He gaped at his master. He didn't say anything. Trisha winced. Eraqus argued, "What?! But Master! Xehanort did so well!"

Master glared at Eraqus, and he shut up. Then Master continued, "Next, Trisha and Eraqus will fight each other. This will be a practice battle to test your skill, for when equal powers clash, their true nature is revealed. Take your positions, and I will give the call to start."

Trisha looked over to Xehanort sadly. Eraqus pouted.

This only angered Xehanort even more. He didn't need their pity. Those two were idiots! Weaklings! All they did was babble and squawk! They didn't train as hard as he did. They weren't as smart or as dedicated as he was! How dare Master promote them to the second part of the test? How dare Master fail Xehanort at the first step of the exam?!

Xehanort was so angry that he decided that he would sabotage both of them. And he knew exactly how to do it. He had been reading forbidden books from the catacombs of the palace, and he had learned an ancient spell, used by keyblade masters of darkness from the days of the Keyblade Wars. It was a simple spell. Just a single touch, and Xehanort could open up channels into the deepest, darkest pits of people's hearts.

Everyone had darkness in their hearts, and most people were able to control their darkness by creating walls or barriers around those dark parts. This spell, however, dissipated those barriers. The spell released people's reservations, broke their ability to hold back their emotions.

If Master thought Xehanort was having trouble controlling his darkness, then he would be appalled when the spell revealed the latent darkness in Eraqus and Trisha's hearts.

So Xehanort simply patted each of his fellow students on the back, forcefully. "Good luck," he told them. And he walked away, smirking. He stood by the sidelines, trying to control his amusement.

Trisha and Eraqus began their battle. And at first, Xehanort thought that his spell didn't work. The two fought each other fiercely, but not violently. Not viciously. Not with darkness. That is, until Eraqus parried a blow from Trisha, and knocked her back a few feet. At that moment, Xehanort saw it, Master saw it, Yen Sid saw it. She felt like she was losing, that Eraqus was getting the upper hand. A little bit of darkness possessed her left hand. But she quickly shook it off and continued the battle.

Xehanort struggled to contain his laughter. He then watched and waited for Eraqus to fuck up.

He didn't.

That was annoying.

It was even more annoying when Master named Eraqus as the one who earn the Mark. Eraqus actually fell backwards, onto his butt, and said, "Me?! What?! ME? No! Trisha was the stronger fighter! Master, it can't be ME!"

As Yen Sid and Master walked away, Xehanort wondered why the spell hadn't worked on Eraqus. He watched as Trisha broke down into tears. Eraqus tried to console her. "Trisha don't cry! You can take the test again later."

She shoved him. "Shut up Eraqus!"

He seized her hand and pulled her close. He roared, "Dammit Trisha, stop pushing me away!"

Trisha was startled. Eraqus was startled. Xehanort understood.

Trisha's darkness stemmed from her fear of failure. Eraqus's darkness stemmed for his desire for Trisha. "Interesting," he told himself.

…

The next year, Xehanort figured out how to cheat on the exam. Hiding his darkness from the watchful eyes of his master was as simple as making Trisha's darkness the more obvious sight. And it wasn't difficult to do so. Trisha was so worried about failing again that the darkness was consuming her. Xehanort didn't even fight the orbs as hard as he had fought them the first time, because Trisha was going berserk, destroying all the orbs before he could.

She didn't advance to the next round, so this time _Master_ Eraqus was to fight Xehanort for the second half of the exam. Yen Sid and their Master watched closely. Trisha had run off, crying. As Eraqus and Xehanort assumed their fighting stances, Xehanort said, "Such a shame about Trisha. I don't think she has the potential to become a Keyblade Master."

"What?" Eraqus shouted.

"You must have seen it too, _Master_ Eraqus." Xehanort hated calling his idiot friend by the title of master, and he swore to himself that he'd never do it again once he earned the title. "You can clearly see how far into the darkness she's fallen."

Their master shouted, "Begin!"

Eraqus asked, "How could you say that?"

Xehanort said, "It's true."

That angered Eraqus. And he lashed out at Xehanort, who was so amused by the situation, that he didn't even need the power of darkness to fight Eraqus. Their master stopped the battle after witnessing Eraqus's violence. After sharply reprimanding Eraqus, Master awarded Xehanort with the Mark.

The Mark can only be given, and never revoked, so once he earned the title of Master, Xehanort decided to leave the Land of Departure. As he prepared to start his own journeys, Eraqus approached him to apologize. "I'm sorry, my friend," Eraqus said.

"Does it look like I care?" replied Xehanort.

"Seriously, I shouldn't have reacted how I did. And I apologize. As a keyblade master, I shouldn't let the darkness overcome me so easily. I'll learn to fight it."

Xehanort sighed. He posed a question to Eraqus, "If darkness is such a bad thing, then why does everyone have a bit of it in their heart?"

Eraqus shrugged. "No idea."

"And you call yourself a master," Xehanort grumbled. Aloud, he answered, "I think it's because there must be balance in everything. To move my arm, one set of muscles must flex and the other contract. So then, perhaps in order to survive, we need those bits of darkness in our hearts. Anger, rage, jealousy, all of those can actually be motivators."

"Being motivated by darkness is a bad thing, Xehanort," corrected Eraqus.

"I don't think so. People become complacent until they are angered into action. People are satiated by what they have until they covet something better. Growth comes from darkness, Eraqus. There is as much a purpose for darkness as there is for light in a heart. To suppress it is futile."

"Xehanort I don't like the tone of this conversation."

"Eraqus, imagine what the world would be like if all hearts were cloaked in darkness, and people worked to suppressed the light in their hearts. Do you think that world would be any different than what we have now?"

"What?" Eraqus shook his head. "What are you talking about?"

Xehanort realized he was wasting his breath. "Never mind." He opened a portal, activated his keyblade armor, and summoned his glider. He sailed off into the space between worlds.


	84. A Fight Between Friends

Each time she failed the exam, Trisha's darkness grew. By the fifth time Trisha failed the exam, her heart was clouded in darkness. Master realized what was happening—albeit too late—and forbade her from taking the test again. "What?" she screamed, her mind already halfway consumed by her obsession with earning the Mark.

"No more Trisha. You've failed," he told her. "This is for your own good."

Trisha didn't want to hear that. She said some very horrible things to him, concluding with, "Fuck you! I wasted my life as your student! I hate you and I hate the keyblade!"

Master was hurt by those words, especially since he felt that he had done this to her. He didn't know how to help her, and thought that the best thing for her would be to leave the Land of Departure. "Trisha, why don't you go explore the worlds and clear your mind?"

"So you're kicking me out?"

"No, Trisha, I love you like my own daughter. I've raised you and Eraqus as my own ever since you two were young." He placed a hand on her shoulder. "Trisha, I'd never kick you out. We are family."

"Then why won't you give me the Mark of Mastery?" she sobbed.

"Because you must EARN it, Trisha."

She stormed away. Master cried.

So Trisha packed her stuff and prepared to leave the Land of Departure. Master sent Eraqus to check up on her. He stood by her door, waiting. When she emerged with a backpack and her keyblade, Eraqus asked, "Are you leaving?"

"What does it look like?"

"Trisha, please don't be upset with Master. He loves us. You know that."

Trisha rolled her eyes and walked away.

"Trisha, please, listen," Eraqus said, chasing after her. "You know he loves us. He took us in and raised us."

Eraqus and Trisha were survivors of a massive fire that had burned down an entire apartment complex, killing two hundred people. Eraqus had lost his mother, father and older brother. Trisha had lost her father, two sisters, and pet cat. (She didn't have a mother, because her mother had died from complications of childbirth after birthing her.)

All of the other survivors had family to take them in, but Eraqus and Trisha had nowhere else to go. Eraqus was eight and Trisha was nine years old at the time, and since then, they've lived with their Master. Master had not only been their adoptive father, but their teacher, training them in the ways of the keyblade. Xehanort had joined their group later on, arriving from a faraway land called Destiny Islands, in search of someone who could train him.

Trisha sighed. "I just really want to earn the Mark, Eraqus," she told him. "It's been my dream since I was little, and I saw Master fighting the fire with his magic. I thought, wow, if I had that power, I could have saved my family…" she sniffled. "I want to save people, Eraqus. That's why I want the Mark."

"You don't need the Mark to save people. You've set your mind on this one path toward achieving your goal, when you have multiple paths and opportunities." He reached for her hand. She snatched it away. He slumped over. "Trisha, please don't leave," he begged.

"I need to. If I stay here, I don't think I'll be happy."

The two stared at each other.

Then Trisha said, "Come with me."

"What?"

"Let's leave. Let's travel the worlds and never come back."

Eraqus hesitated to answer.

"Eraqus?"

"Trisha, I can't leave Master. He's getting old. His health is failing and he'll be lonely."

"Who cares about him?"

"Trisha. You can't mean that."

She sighed. She bit her bottom lip. She waited for him to change his mind.

He seemed serious.

For once in his life, he seemed serious.

She couldn't believe it. She whispered, "Eraqus, I thought you loved me."

"I do."

"Then come with me."

"No..."

She was heartbroken. "Okay." She mended her heart with darkness. "Well, fuck you. Goodbye." And she stormed off.

That was the last time Eraqus would see her…until that day he saw her again at the grand opening of the D'Vitae potion factory.

…

Their Master died about ten years later. Eraqus reached out to Trisha and Xehanort to attend his funeral. Xehanort came to pay his respects. Trisha didn't.

"Life is short," Xehanort said after the burial. The two had returned to the palace to have tea and talk about how life had been these past few years.

"Too short," said a grieving Eraqus.

Xehanort didn't feel any sadness or grief. Frankly, he didn't care about the man he had spent several years training under. Sure, he respected the man, and that was the reason why he attended Master's funeral, but he was not bothered at all by the man's passing.

What bothered Xehanort, was the reality of death. Looking at the casket carrying the body of the man who had once been so energetic and strong, really punched Xehanort in the gut. He realized that one day, he too would be in a wooden box, six feet under, feeding the worms. And he hated that thought. He didn't want to die. There was still SO much he needed to do! SO much he needed to see!

Although he was still a young man at that time, Xehanort began to grieve for his own self. That was why Xehanort shed tears that day. And he swore to himself that he would find a way to live forever, to be youthful, forever.

"I can't believe Trisha didn't come," Eraqus mumbled. "I can't believe her heart was so clouded by darkness that she didn't attend Master's funeral."

"Yes, that is interesting," Xehanort said to himself. "She would make a great subject for study."

"Study?"

Xehanort had spoken too loud. He hadn't meant for Eraqus to overhear. "Nothing."

"No, I insist, Xehanort," Eraqus smiled. "Tell me. You always have been the inquisitive type. What sort of studies?"

Perhaps it was because Eraqus seemed so genuinely interested in Xehanort's studies that Xehanort decided to tell him. "You see, I have always been… enthralled by the power of darkness."

Eraqus's face began to sour. "W-what?"

But Xehanort was a bit too eager to finally speak to another person about his hyper fixation about the darkness. He kept talking, "I've been traveling the worlds, studying people's hearts. There are people who have hearts so filled with light that it makes me sick. Then there are hearts so dark that I get excited. There's a spectrum of hearts, Eraqus. I have notebooks upon notebooks of research— but, I've yet to study the effects of corrupting a heart. When I study hearts, I study them as is. I don't know about the condition of that heart days ago, months ago, years ago. But with Trisha's heart, I have data on how she was when I first met her. I have data on how she was when I first opened the channels of her heart. And now, it seems that I need to collect the data on how dark her heart has grown since then."

"Opened… a channel…?"

"Well I don't have the power to fill a heart with darkness. That's impossible. I merely have the power to open channels, to erase the barricades that people build in their hearts to control their darkness. And if I continue my studies, I believe that I can develop the power to extract the darkness from people's hearts. Or, perhaps, I can learn how to manipulate the minds of people with darkness in their hearts! Think about it, Eraqus! Think about the possibilities of these findings!"

"Manipulate minds Extract darkness?"

Xehanort sensed Eraqus's discomfort. "Eraqus, listen, darkness is nothing to be afraid of! Do you fear light? No! So then, why fear light's counterpart, the darkness?"

"Xehanort, did I hear you correctly when you said you erased Trisha's ability to control her darkness?"

Now Xehanort hesitated to answer. He spoke carefully. "If you weight the benefits of this research with the costs, then it was a necessary sacrifice."

"What benefits?!"

"Kingdom Hearts."

"What?"

Xehanort stood up and spread out his hands in a grandiose gesture. "Kingdom. Hearts! The ultimate source of power, the ultimate source of knowledge! It is the epitaph of the Keyblade War!"

"Epitaph? What?"

"Eraqus you idiot, an epitaph is something by which an event is remembered. Kingdom Hearts was the reason for the Keyblade War. The books I've read say that factions of keyblade wielders fought for its power. The books say that it is the true light, the sleeping light, that, once wakened, will connect all the worlds once more. BUT, Eraqus, if I can harness the power of Kingdom Hearts, I can use it to create a new world! A world cloaked in darkness, like it once was in legend!"

Eraqus started shaking his head. "Xehanort, what?"

"But to access it, I need something called a chi-blade. Or perhaps, I would need to start another Keyblade War? I am not sure as of yet. But listen, Eraqus, they say that ruin brings about creation. If I were to bring this existence to the brink of ruin, will we be found worthy to wield the precious light which the legend speaks of?"

Eraqus looked into his friend's deranged, yellow eyes. "What? Wait, wait, Xehanort, am I hearing you correctly? You want to destroy the world?"

"No, Eraqus, I want to unlock the secrets of the universe."

"You fool! You would risk plunging the world into darkness for the sake of knowledge?" Eraqus shouted.

"For the sake of ULTIMATE knowledge!" Xehanort decreed. "I shall know the secrets of creation itself!"

"And you hurt Trisha to do it?"

Xehanort nodded. "A necessary sacrifice."

Eraqus summoned his keyblade. "You piece of shit." He was irate.

"Oh. It seems I have forgotten that you can't control your darkness when Trisha is involved. Hm." Xehanort summoned his own keyblade. "If you intend to fight me, then go ahead."

…

It was a vicious battle. Both men were almost mortally wounded by the end of it. It had lasted three days, had reduced the palace to rubble, and had brought both men to their knees.

Xehanort was terrified. He had lost too much blood. He had run out of magic. He didn't want to die! Did Eraqus really intend to kill him? He watched in horror, as the bruised, bloody Eraqus rose to his feet and pointed his keyblade at Xehanort. A beam of light gathered at the tip of his sword.

Xehanort didn't want to die.

Xehanort really didn't want to die.

So he screamed, "Eraqus! You would really kill your friend over a woman that you'll never see again?!"

Eraqus stopped attacking. He lowered his blade. He stood there, listless. He was too fatigued to even cry. After a silent moment, he fell forward, and passed out. Xehanort, too, passed out.

Xehanort awoke that night. Their battle had blasted holes in the roof, so Xehanort could see the stars sparkling in the sky. He turned his head and saw Eraqus passed out on the ground beside him. Xehanort sat up. He opened a portal. He crawled away.


	85. A Grave Mistake

Years later, Eraqus had lived in the palace and taken the duties of Keyblade Guardian of the Land of Departure. He had restored the palace to its former glory shortly after his battle with Xehanort, using a restoration spell. Eraqus had lived a quiet existence on his own, and although it could be lonely at times, he was a happy.

The only thing that he yearned for was the company of the friends that he had lost. He blamed himself for letting Trisha go, and he blamed himself for the fight that almost cost both him and Xehanort their lives.

Perhaps it was because he blamed himself that he all too eagerly jumped at the chance to reunite with Xehanort. His old friend appeared at his doorstep, randomly, one day. Eraqus was absolutely shocked to see him.

"Eraqus!" said Xehanort.

"Xehanort," Eraqus replied. "It's good to see you."

Both were now men of fifty-five and fifty-two, respectively. Xehanort and Eraqus had tea, and talked about the good old times. They talked about what they had been doing with their lives over the past few decades. Eraqus said, "I've been the Keyblade Master here. It's been fun. The town asks me to come to events, and asks me for advice on stuff, and asks me to judge civil court cases. Sometimes they even ask me to catch criminals. It's a lot of responsibility. It's been peaceful lately, and they don't need me as much… What about you?"

"I did my studies, researching hearts for years. And eventually, I realized that my work was going nowhere. I realized that I had spent my life chasing stupid legends, and that I had driven away my friends because of a stupid idea. And for that, I am truly sorry, Eraqus."

"…Wow…"

"Yes, and I beg your forgiveness, friend. I've changed. I've changed for the better. I've renounced my studies of darkness. I've come to make amends, and set my life on the right path, for however long I have left on this mortal plane. Can you ever find it in your heart to forgive me, Eraqus?"

"Xehanort…of course I forgive you."

…

A few days later, Eraqus and Xehanort walked into an office building in Twilight Town. They entered a room that looked like a kindergarten playroom. There were toys scattered all around the floor, there was a bookshelf full of books, puzzles and board games, there were a couple TVs equipped with video game consoles, and there was even a guitar laying in one corner. In the room was a social worker, who was standing next to a little boy. She saw Xehanort and said, "Good morning Mister Xehanort."

"Good morning Yvonne. How are you?"

"Wonderful," replied Yvonne the social worker. She gestured to the boy, "I'm here to observe your interactions with Ventus before we finalize the adoption." She noticed Eraqus. "Is this your character witness?"

Xehanort nodded. "Yes. My longtime friend, Eraqus."

Yvonne shook Eraqus's hand. "Hello, I'm Yvonne, the social worker for Ventus. I'd like to ask you a few questions about Xehanort."

Eraqus nodded. "Of course."

So while Xehanort read a book to 8-year-old Ventus, Yvonne asked Eraqus, "Has he always been fond of children?"

"Not really," Eraqus admitted. "He was a scientist, sort of a loner."

"Oh. So what made him interested in adopting Ventus?"

"He dedicated his life to his research, but then realized that he could do much more good in the world by dedicating his life to helping others."

"Why? Why the sudden change?"

Eraqus sighed. "His research failed. He was studying something highly experimental, and it failed. So I think it broke his heart. But, he fixed his heart, for the better."

Yvonne watched as Xehanort ruffled Ventus's hair and kept reading. She pursed her lips. "Ventus is a VERY special case," the woman said. "I'm hesitant to allow him to be adopted."

Eraqus watched as Xehanort read the book to the child. Ventus wasn't even paying attention. His blue eyes were dull, and he was blankly staring straight ahead, at the wall in front of him. Eraqus asked, "Is he alright?"

Yvonne shook her head. "He's been through a lot. I'm not so sure if Ventus would be a good match for Xehanort. Perhaps he'd want a child that, well, is… responsive. Ventus is… trapped. He's trapped in his own little world, in his head."

"What happened to him?"

"It's… It's sensitive. I'm not allowed to tell."

"Oh… Um, well…" Eraqus didn't know what to say. He watched as Xehanort set the book down and grabbed Ventus's hand. He gave it a squeeze and asked, "Can you hear me Ventus?" The boy slowly turned his head to look at Xehanort. Ventus blinked. Xehanort stroked his cheek, and said, "I'm here for you." The boy mumbled, "…ok…"

In that moment, Eraqus saw a side of his friend that he had never seen before. But he believed it to be true. He told Yvonne, "Xehanort is the kindest man you could ever meet. He'll take very good care of Ventus, and help him heal."

Yvonne saw the sincerity in Eraqus's eyes. She nodded. "Okay. I'll take your recommendation into consideration."

…

A few weeks later, Eraqus received a phone call from Xehanort. "The adoption was finalized today, Eraqus."

"Wonderful!" Eraqus replied happily.

"Thank you again for your wonderful character witness. I don't think I would have been able to adopt this child if not for your help."

"Of course. I trust you will be a wonderful father to him."

"Hmph." Xehanort could barely control his laughter. "Such kind words Eraqus. I don't deserve them."


	86. Monster Smash

Let's rewind to earlier that afternoon, right after Terra had beaten Hercules. By this time, Ven had run off to Neverland and Aqua had gone looking Ven. While Aqua and Ven were having their time-bending adventures in Neverland, Terra was still at the Games in the Coliseum.

It took about five minutes for the janitors to magically make a new stage after Terra destroyed it during his battle with Hercules. Once that was done, Phil went to the East Bracket waiting room to call up the next contestants. "Aqua! Anyone here by the name of Aqua?"

There was no response.

"Aqua, huh? That must have been the blue-haired girl. The one that Terra guy got all defensive about. I wonder where she went. I should apologize to her." He crossed off her name from his roster. "Well she ain't here, so Aqua forfeits her match. Next is, uh…Luigi? Anyone here by the name of Luigi?"

…

Terra leaned against the outside of the coliseum, thinking about what he'd done. He summoned his keyblade and stared at it. _When did I become so violent? When did I forget how to control my temper? I really am a phenomenal fuck-up._

"So you're just gonna quit?" asked Hades, who appeared beside Terra. He leaned on the wall too, while munching on some popcorn. Terra didn't answer. Hades kept eating. "You know, this popcorn stuff is amazing. You take some corn, dry it out, and the heat it up so quick that it explodes. Ha. Who would have thought that something so hard and crunchy could become so light and fluffy? And all it took was a little bit of hot air."

Hades ate another handful. He made a face and spit out a burnt, un-popped seed into his hand. "I hate these little fuckers. Don't you just hate when the kernel doesn't pop? It just shrinks up into a black piece of nothing. It tastes bitter, and it ruins the fun of the entire handful, ya know. A few bad pieces can destroy the whole popcorn experience."

He flicked the bad piece at Terra. It bounced off Terra's shoulder, and landed on the flat side of his keyblade. Terra spoke up, "So I could either pop into popcorn or burn up into this crisp?"

"Geez, you're smarter than I thought, kid."

"You think I still have a chance, Hades?"

"I dunno. I'm the god of death, not one of the three fates."

Terra winced.

Hades added, "Remember what that martial artist said?"

Terra looked up. "He said that I'm the only one who can determine whether I lose, because I'm the only one who can decide to give up."

"Eeeeh, that's paraphrasing it. But that's the gist."

Terra felt a light pierce through the clouds of darkness in his heart. "Then I won't quit. I'm not gonna give up." The young man felt invigorated once more.

"Don't get too excited." Hades tilted the rest of the bag into his mouth. "You're the entire bag of popcorn, not just a single kernel." Hades wiped his mouth.

"What do you mean?"

"Everyone's bag of popcorn is a little different. Some people are just fluff, some people are all burnt. And the funny part is that each person has to eat their own bag when the time comes. Ask yourself whether you're making the kind of popcorn you'd want to eat, Terra."

Terra thought for a moment. "So you're saying that my actions create consequences that I'm eventually going to have to face?"

"Look at that, you're a poetic little genius aren't you?"

Terra nodded his head. "Thanks for the advice Hades."

Their moment of mentoring was interrupted by an announcement from Phil, the Olympus Coliseum Games Coordinator. He was standing in the middle of the street, shouting, "Hey contestants, come over here! It's time for the bonus round!"

"Bonus Round?" Terra repeated, walking closer to Phil to hear the news. A crowd of fighters gathered around the satyr, who said, "Alright, so every year we do a bonus round for the contestants who have made it to the top tiers of their bracket. We play a mini-game, and it's completely optional. But, if you do compete in the bonus round, and score the highest, you get a really cool prize. This year's prize is the new Y-Phone Z, the official cellphone of the gods of Olympus. Since Y-Corp, the makers of Y-Phone are a sponsor of the games, I'm required to say that."

The people in the crowd started murmuring excitedly. But Phil cut off their excitement, saying, "Ah, ah, ah, before you all start rushing inside the coliseum for the bonus round, let me tell you what it is. It's a little different this year. Usually we do something like Timed Target Smash or Home Run Smash. But this year we're doing Monster Smash."

"Monster Smash?" Terra repeated.

"That's right. As you all may have noticed, there have been monsters lurking all around the city. We don't know where the hell they're coming from, but they're dangerous. So the goal of this year's bonus round is to find and defeat as many monsters as you can in 30 minutes."

"Monsters?" Terra muttered. "Does he mean unversed?"

"Now I know what you're all thinking. You're thinking, 'Phil, how do we keep count of the number of monsters we kill?' Now that's easy. When the monsters are defeated, they explode into confetti. You want to get covered in that monster confetti. Whoever is the most confetti-covered person at the end of 30 minutes wins. So now you're gonna say to me, 'Phil, that's not an exact science.' And to you I say, well, hey, don't play the bonus round if you're worried about science. We start Monster Smash in one minute. Show up at the West Bracket Stage before the 30-minute timer runs out to qualify for judging. Any questions?"

There were no questions. So Phil pointed to an hourglass that the game organizers had placed in front of the coliseum while he was speaking. "Okay fighters, on your mark, get set, go!"

About a dozen fighters decided to participate in Monster Smash, and Terra was one of them. After all, hadn't he been tasked with destroying the unversed? So why not kill two birds with one stone? He'd win the Y-Phone Z and do his duty.

Within the first five minutes, he was sure he was going to win. He was smashing the unversed left and right, killing them with one swing of his keyblade. The unversed looked like flying bottles of chocolate milk this time. They looked like an entire dairy section of a grocery store decided to grow bat wings and start swarming.

At this point, however, Terra was used to these weirdly shaped monsters. He fought them without thinking too much about it. And the more he fought, the more he realized that even if he didn't win the Monster Smash Bonus Round, he'd probably earn enough munny from the unversed to buy a Y-Phone Z of his own.

"Why do these things drop munny?" he asked himself as he defeated his 100th unversed. Then he heard an announcement from a coordinator of the games, who was riding on a flying horse and shouting into a megaphone, "Fifteen minutes remaining! Fifteen minutes remaining!"

So Terra ran to find more unversed to slay." He ran down the streets of the city, mowing down the unversed with powerful strikes. He found a colony of them gathered in a dark, secluded alley, so he ran in and BAM, whacked them all with a powerful blitz.

"Ten minutes left~!" called out the Pegasus-riding game coordinator.

"Plenty of time," Terra said to himself, slinging his keyblade over his shoulder. He was about to run off, but he heard someone behind him whisper, "Hey, want some chocolate milk?"

"Huh?" Terra turned around—and barely dodged being stabbed in the back with a dagger. He sidestepped just in time. Then he parried a blow from his attacker. Terra jumped back and took a fighting stance. "Yo, calm down!" Terra yelled. "It's just a bonus round. Don't get angry and attack your fellow contestants."

Terra's attacker was a normal looking guy, dressed in all black. He wore a baseball cap that obscured his face. Maybe it was just the lighting in this dark alley, but his skin seemed to have a dark blue hue. "I'll take you to the post office!" shouted the guy, who rushed toward Terra. Terra blocked the attack and countered, smacking the guy in the back of his head hard enough to put him to sleep for a couple days. But the guy was unfazed. He reversed and stabbed Terra in the side.

"Fuck!" shouted Terra. He kicked the guy in the knees, and rolled away. Grabbing his side, he tried to cast "Heal!"

But the attacker threw both of his daggers at Terra before the spell could take effect. Terra dodged out of the way. By now, Terra was livid. He felt the wisps of darkness infusing into his keyblade. But he didn't want to repeat what happened at the coliseum, especially here in the town. So he forced himself to hold it back. Instead, he rushed his attacker and swung his blade.

But the attacker's daggers returned to his hands just in time to parry Terra's strike. The two clashed. Terra was startled by how powerful this opponent was. He backed away. Behind him was a stone wall. He was cornered. He was bleeding. He was angry.

So Terra pointed his keyblade and shot a beam of dark energy at the guy's chest. This knocked down the guy long enough for Terra to heal himself. Then, with darkness swirling around him, Terra marched over to the guy, stepped on the guy's chest, and pointed his keyblade at his face. "What the hell?!" Terra shouted.

That's when he got a good look at the guy's face.

This wasn't a contestant from the games.

This was an unversed.

And the unversed assailant screamed, "You'll be number six!"

Terra's eyes widened. He realized something. For a second, he was frozen.

A second was all this unversed needed to throw his daggers at Terra. One hit Terra in the right shoulder, but the other one missed. Terra jumped back, yanked the dagger out of this shoulder and threw it at the unversed. It caught the dagger, and licked the blood on the blade. Terra shouted, "Who are you!? Why are you here!"

"You must be thirsty? Why don't I buy you something to drink?" the Unversed ran toward Terra and swung at him with his daggers. Terra dodged and asked, "You came from Vanitas, right? The unversed come from Vanitas, right?" At this point, he was kind of talking to himself. "And Vanitas came from Ven. That's what Xehanort said. So that means this thing came from Ven. That means all the unversed come from Ven." Terra dodged another attack and rolled out of the way. "They come from Ven's memories. Ven's repressed memories."

Terra avoided attacks as he tried to recall all the unversed he fought. "Oh shit they all make sense. They're all things from a child's nightmares. They're all things from Ven's nightmares!"

Terra ducked and summoned a spire of rock in between him and the unversed. "Ven has a lot of repressed memories," Terra said to himself. He started to cry because he realized, "Ven has been in so much pain. All these unversed are bits and pieces of Ven's pain. How did I not notice this until now?"

"I know the way to the post office!" shouted the unversed as it tried to break through Terra's rock wall.

"He's still hurting from that day. That day I should have went with him downtown." Terra squeezed his keyblade. His hand trembled with anger. "Hades was right. We all eventually have to face the consequences of our actions." Terra wiped his face. "Ven, Aqua, I swear, I'm never gonna hurt you guys ever again."

Terra's keyblade glowed with dark power.

"Whether there's darkness in my heart or not, I'm gonna be the one that protects you guys!"

The unversed broke through Terra's rock barrier right as Terra lifted his keyblade above his head. He smashed his keyblade down on the unversed, and powered the blow with a surge of dark energy.

The blow was so powerful that it caused the ground to shake. All the way back at the coliseum, people felt the tremble. It was a powerful blow, but not a devastating one. It defeated the unversed without destroying the city.

And of course, confetti and munny rained down.

"One minute left!" shouted the game coordinator in the sky.

But Terra didn't care about the bonus round anymore. He quietly sat down in the alley.


	87. The Masked Boy

Terra decided the best course of action to help Ven would be to defeat his evil counterpart. "That should end his pain, right?" So Terra stood up, and with renewed vigor, decided he would defeat the masked boy who had entered the games.

When he marched back to the coliseum covered in confetti, people gasped and said, "Whoa! He must have defeated a lot of monsters! Too bad he's too late for the judging. He definitely would have won."

Hades saw Terra, and laughed at him, saying, "Wow kid, you got a bit too eager, didn't you?"

"Hades, thank you," Terra replied. "For everything."

"Huh?"

"I'm going to win this tournament, and I'm going to do it the right way." He smiled at Hades. "I've realized now that I don't want to be strong for my own sake. I want to be strong for the sake of those who depend on me." He nodded and placed a hand over his heart. "I'll use this power to protect my friends."

"Well look at that determination in your eyes! I'm excited to see it." Hades smiled, and patted Terra on the back. "Good luck kid."

…

Terra made quick work of his next few opponents, knocking them out of the ring without seriously injuring them, destroying the stadium, or becoming overwhelmed with the power of darkness. Soon, he was the champion of the west bracket. Phil wasn't surprised.

"Let's hear a round of applause for our West Bracket Champion, Terra!" he shouted out.

Terra bowed as the crowds cheered for him. It actually felt good to hear all that applause, but he tried not to let it go to his head.

"After a short break, Terra will battle against the East Bracket Champion, a masked boy who has been blowing the competition away! It'll be a spectacle, so don't miss it!" Then Phil turned to Terra and said, "You've got twenty minutes to prepare yourself."

Terra nodded.

He found a quiet spot behind the coliseum and meditated for a few minutes. He'd need to have a clear and focused mind to prevent himself from going berserk. After all, the masked boy that he was about to fight was Vanitas, the creator of the unversed, the dark half of Ven's heart. Terra needed to be focused.

Hades watched from a distance. "I'm rooting for you, Terra."

…

Terra walked onto the stage for the final round of The Games. He summoned his keyblade, took a deep breath, and told himself, "You're doing this for Ven." He imagined Ven's smiling face. He smiled.

But that smile turned upside down when his opponent took the stage. He was a kid that looked about Ven's age—maybe a little older. He was thin, with a petite build. He wore a silver mask that obscured most of his face, a black suit of armor, black gloves, brown boots, and baggy blue pants. Dark aura radiated off of his body.

"So we finally meet, Vanitas," Terra said, summoning his keyblade. His opponent didn't reply. Rather, he summoned his own weapon.

A regular sword.

"Huh?" Terra said.

Phil called out, "This is the final battle of the Games! Terra versus Zack!"

"ZACK!?" Terra shouted.

"Begin!" Phil declared, and he ran out of the way.

As Zack charged toward Terra, Terra realized that at no point during the competition did he even check to see who the masked boy competing in the games was. He could have easily gone over to the East Bracket and watched the masked boy battle. It would have been clear to Terra that this masked boy wasn't Vanitas. But no, Terra was too busy wrapped up in his own mental anguish to realize that Vanitas wasn't at this competition.

"Wow, so I wasted my time," Terra said as he parried Zack's blow. And that thought made him angry. Angry enough to break his focus, and make the wisps of darkness gather around him. With a single blow, he knocked Zack to the edge of the stage. Then he jumped up and slammed his keyblade down.

Zack dodged, and reversed. He almost slashed Terra in the back, but Terra blocked the attack and countered. Zack took a hit, and skidded to the opposite end of the stage. Terra stood up and assumed a fighting stance. Then he ran toward Zack.

The two fought hard. Zack was powerful, of course—after all, he was the champion of the East Bracket. But Terra was powerful too. Both of them were using the power of darkness. They shot beams of dark energy at each other, as they ran around the stage. Zack dodged an attack from Terra, charged at him, and swung his blade. Terra blocked it. They were both pushed back.

Terra panted. This guy was throwing him around the stage with all these powerful blows. In order to win, Terra would need to use more dark energy. So he coated his keyblade in darkness, and ran at Zack. With a quick strike, he knocked Zack's mask off.

And that's when Terra saw Zack's face. Zack's eyes were dull. Zack was completely possessed by the power of darkness. Terra took a step back. Zack saw this hesitation, and used that to his advantage. He swung his blade, slashing Terra's upper chest.

Grabbing the wound with one hand, Terra fended off Zack's attack with the other. He thought, _So this is what it looks like to be consumed by darkness. Is this how I was?_ Terra jumped back. He said, "Hey, Zack, snap out of it!" Zack kept attacking. Terra kept dodging. "I was just like you! My heart was filled with darkness, and I couldn't control it. I liked the power, but I hated who it made me become. But I learned that it isn't the power that's important. What's important is where the power comes from."

Terra dodged another blow, but Zack was pushing him toward the edge of the stage. "Zack, listen to me. No matter how strong you get, it's meaningless if the strength isn't your own. You need to own your darkness. You can't give into the darkness. You need to make it give in to you."

Zack reared back for a final attack. Terra held up his keyblade to block it. The force of the blow would have knocked Terra off the stage. Fortunately, Zack hesitated this time. Zack muttered, "My own strength?"

Terra nodded, and lowered his keyblade. "Everyone has darkness in their hearts. Some more than others. And we can give in to it, and let it control us. Or we can pretend it doesn't exist, and allow it to slowly eat away at us from the inside. Or we can accept that it's there, and decide to use it for good. I've chosen the last path. What will you choose?"

Zack lowered his blade. "What will I choose?" He dropped his sword. He grabbed at his head. He screamed and dropped to his knees. The dark aura surrounding him dissipated. Then Zack fell over, unconscious.

Phil, who was watching from a distance, asked, "Is that it?" The satyr man waited to see if Zack would get up. After about minute of silence, Phil said, "Well that was anti-climactic." But he hurried to the stage and declared, "The winner of this year's Games at The Olympic Coliseum is Terra!"

The crowd went wild.

Terra was surprised. He was honestly expecting to lose this battle. He watched as Zack slowly got up, shook his head, and blinked several times, as if awaking from a trance. Zack looked at his hands. "Accept that it's there, and decide to use it for good," Zack muttered. He looked at Terra. He smiled. "That's good advice. Thank you."

…

Terra was healed up by a nurse before the award ceremony took place. He was led onto a stage and presented with a giant trophy. "Now, this year's patron god will crown you with a laurel wreath," Phil announced.

"Patron god?" Terra repeated. He watched as none other than Hades, god of the underworld, walked onto the stage. "Hades?"

"Yup, it's me," Hades said. He held a crown of laurels in his hands. "I was rooting for you to win. I'm glad I get to crown you."

Terra lowered his head, so that Hades could bestow the crown upon his head. "Thank you, Hades, god of the underworld. Without your guidance, I wouldn't have learned so many important lessons."

"No problem."

"But, I can't help but feel that I had an unfair advantage. You helped me so much, yet you were the patron god of this tournament." He glanced at the trophy. "I don't think I deserve this."

Hades laughed. "You think you were the only kid I was helping? No, I was coaching that Zack kid as well."

"Really?"

"Yup. I told him a lot of the stuff I told you. Yet, he still gave into the darkness. Terra, I didn't make you control your darkness. That was all you, kid. And in the end, you were able to help him more than I was able to help him all day. You have a good heart kid. It's not a heart of pure light, and it's not a heart of pure dark. But overall, it's a heart that wants to do good. Don't lose that, you hear me?"

Terra nodded. "Yes sir."

Hades smiled. Then he turned around and raised his hands. He declared to the crowd of spectators, "On behalf of the gods of Olympus, I now declare that the name Dreterran Ryusuke Smith be written on the Tablet of Heroes." He waved his hands and a stone tablet appeared in them. With a flash of light, Terra's name appeared on the list.

"Congratulations, Terra," Hades said.

…

So that was fun. As Terra walked out of the coliseum, he wondered what to do next. He looked all around him. "Wasn't Aqua here too?" he asked himself. "Maybe she went back. I should probably head back too. Everyone is probably worried about me."

So Terra put his trophy away in his inventory, and activated his keyblade armor. With a flick of his keyblade, he opened a portal in the sky. Then he tossed his blade into the air, transforming it into a keyblade glider. With a perfectly timed hop, he jumped onto his ride, and zoomed away into the sky.


	88. Backstabber

Terra felt like spending all day at the tournament in the coliseum was a good thing. He had learned to control his darkness, befriended the god of the underworld, and even earned a cool trophy. As he flew through space, on his way back to the Land of Departure, he decided that he would tell Master Eraqus exactly what happened, and beg Aqua and Ven for forgiveness. Then he would ask Master Eraqus what to do about Vanitas. That made sense, right?

Terra braced himself to be yelled at by everyone once he landed. Aqua would probably call him some choice words, Ven would probably cry and hit him, and Master Eraqus would probably shake his head and say, "I'm disappointed in you, Terra."

But, you know what, yeah, Terra deserved all that. So Terra would "eat his popcorn". He'd accept his punishment and hope that everything would be okay, and that everyone would forgive him. And maybe after all this chaos settled, he could still be Master Eraqus's student for another year or so, and take the Mark of Master Exam again. Maybe Aqua would give him another chance to prove himself worthy of her affection. Maybe Ven would one day look up to him again.

Maybe Terra could heal all of the pain he had caused the people he loved like family. That was his goal.

But when he landed in The Land of Departure, all of those thoughts vanished. He was so shocked by the sight of Master Eraqus and Master Xehanort fighting, that he forgot about everything else.

From the moment he saw them, Terra could tell that this fight was serious. The two old men were clashing violently. The looks on their faces were serious. "M-master?" Terra called out.

"Terra! Leave this place!" shouted Eraqus, as he slashed at Xehanort.

Xehanort dodged, and barely missed Eraqus with beam of dark power. "Terra! Thank goodness you're here!" Xehanort jumped back and put up a shield of darkness to defend against Eraqus's attacks. As Eraqus slammed his keyblade against Xehanort's shield, Xehanort explained, "Your Master has gone mad! He attacks me unprovoked!"

"Lies!" shouted Eraqus. "This man intends to harm Ventus! Terra, leave here and find Ventus!"

"Harm Ventus? Why, Eraqus, you've heard me wrong! I said that we must find a way to destroy Vanitas!"

"Vanitas?" Eraqus repeated. Of course that was a lie that Xehanort said just to confuse Eraqus. He kicked Eraqus in the gut, sending him smashing into the wall of the Palace. Xehanort further lied, "Terra, I spoke to Eraqus about my plan to save Ventus, the same plan I told you when we were in the graveyard. And he became furious and attacked me!"

Eraqus shook his head. "He lies, Terra! This man is plotting evil against Ventus!"

Terra shook his head. "But… But why would Xehanort want to hurt Ven? Master maybe you misunderstood him. Let's all just calm down and—"

Eraqus shouted, "Terra, you MUST believe me!"

"But Master," Terra shouted, "listen, Xehanort told me everything. He told me about how he needed to split Ven's heart to save him and how we need to use the power of darkness to destroy Ven's dark side. I think he's telling the truth. So maybe we should stop fighting and—"

Eraqus pounded his fist on the ground. "Xehanort, you've turned my student against me!" Eraqus jumped into the air and slashed downward at Xehanort, who dodged the blow. "Terra," continued Eraqus, "I don't know what he's told you, but I swear to you that he has malicious intentions for Ventus. Please, Terra, leave here at once and go protect him!"

Terra was confused. He was just so confused. He didn't understand the situation at all. But everything was happening so fast. The two masters were slamming their keyblades at lightning speed.

"Help me, Terra!" Xehanort shouted.

"Stay away, Terra!" Eraqus shouted.

Terra didn't know what to do. "Stop fighting!" he yelled at them. "You two are friends! Stop fighting!"

"Terra!" shouted Xehanort. "Help me!"

"Terra!" shouted Eraqus. "Stay away!"

The young man took a step back. He watched in horror as the two men battled fiercely. The looks in their eyes were vicious. They were slamming into walls. They were causing sparks to fly. They were summoning clouds of darkness and beams of light. The ground was crumbling at their feet. The palace was breaking apart. Chunks of wall and part of the grand staircase were floating in the air.

Terra watched in horror as Eraqus slashed a gash across Xehanort's chest. Xehanort roared in pain, clutched his bleeding torso, and shot a beam of darkness that pierced Eraqus's left shoulder.

"Terra!" screamed Xehanort.

"Terra!" screamed Eraqus.

Both men were very badly injured. Yet they kept fighting. And fighting. And fighting.

Terra realized that this was seriously a fight to the death. He was about to witness an act of murder. Someone was going to die unless he did something to stop this fight.

"Terra! Help me!" begged Xehanort, as a blow from Eraqus threw him into the ground. "Your Master has gone mad! He intends to kill me!"

"No! Terra!" screamed Eraqus, panting. The blood from the wound on his shoulder began soaking his outer robe. "Xehanort is lying! He is a force of evil that must be stopped!" Eraqus rushed toward Xehanort and slammed his blade downward. Xehanort parried the blow, but the impact pushed him further into the ground. Eraqus was tossed across the lawn.

"Terra!" Xehanort cried out as he rose to his feet.

"Terra!" Eraqus cried out, after landing on the ground and skidding a few feet.

Terra's grip tightened around his blade. He took several deep breaths and began to sweat. His realized his hands were shaking. He didn't know what to do. Master Eraqus wasn't the type to kill someone, so why was he doing this? Would this be something his Master would regret? But Eraqus was begging Terra not to interfere. Surely, Eraqus knew what he was doing, right?

But does that mean Xehanort deserved to die? What could Xehanort have possibly done to deserve execution? Was he seriously trying to hurt Ven? No, just yesterday, Terra had heard Xehanort say that Ven was like a son to him. Xehanort had said that he split Ven's heart into two to save the boy's life. Xehanort looked so sad when he spoke of the situation. From what Terra could see, Xehanort cared about Ven.

"Terra!" Xehanort shrieked, still clutching his chest with one hand while he fended off attacks from Eraqus with the keyblade in his other hand.

"Terra!" Eraqus was on the offensive, launching attack after attack.

"Terra!"

"Terra!"

They were both screaming at him. Terra didn't know what to do.

"Terra!" Xehanort was knocked to the ground by a mighty blow from Eraqus. His keyblade fell out of his hand. Eraqus stepped on his hand, and pointed his own keyblade at Xehanort's face. He charged up a beam of light. Eraqus said, "I hate to do this, my friend, but you have left me no choice. Goodbye Xehanort."

Xehanort cried out, "Terra! Terra!"

Terra shut his eyes.

Terra made his decision.

Right before Eraqus blew Xehanort's brains out, Terra jumped in to smack Eraqus's keyblade upwards, so that the beam shot into the sky. "Master!" Terra shouted. "Don't do this! Don't hurt your friend!"

Just for a brief moment, Eraqus hesitated.

And in that brief moment, Xehanort teleported behind Eraqus.

The sight of Xehanort's blade piercing Eraqus's body was disgusting. The squishy sound it made was even worse.

It would be something that would give Terra nightmares for the rest of his life.

Terra was unable to do anything but watch in disbelief as Xehanort yanked his bloody keyblade out of Master Eraqus's gut. Eraqus, falling to his knees, coughed up a splatter of blood, painting the tiles of the courtyard with the color of death.

"W-w-w-what?" Terra stammered.

Xehanort replied, "Thank you, Terra," while he shook the excess blood off of his keyblade. "I very much appreciate your help."

Terra's vision started to blur. He couldn't think straight. "What? Why would… Why would you do that?" he whimpered.

Kneeling on the floor, Master Eraqus, with his left hand, covered the gaping hole in belly. With his right hand, he reached out, pointing his keyblade toward his student. "Terra," he croaked out in pain, "Find Aqua and Ven. Protect them. Please. Protect them, for I couldn't."

The young man started to breathe heavily, his whole body rocking with each breath. Terra raised his keyblade. "Heal! Heal!" Terra shouted. "Heal! HEAL!" But the spells had little effect on Eraqus, whose clothing was drenched in his own blood. Yet Terra kept casting, "Heal! Dammit! Heal!"

"It's no use," whispered Eraqus, his face draining of color. "Take my blade. Aqua and Ven, protect them. That's all you can do now."

"Master Eraqus! Heal!" Terra roared, tears building in his eyes. "Heal! Heal! Heal!"

"Don't blame yourself, Terra. If anyone is to blame, it is I, for not realizing Xehanort's plans." Eraqus sputtered again. "I have failed you all."

"This can't be happening! Master Eraqus! Heal!"

"These last few years have been wonderful," Eraqus reminisced. "You, Aqua, Ventus, I have come to love you all as my own children. I am proud of all of you. What a shame it must end like this. But I'll die a happy man, as long as I know that you'll protect them, Terra. Please."

Terra fell to his knees. "Master. Master I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Don't die. Please don't die." He looked into the old man's face, now ghost-like with pallor, and knew that it was a useless request. So he grasped his Master's keyblade, met his eyes, and stated, "Yes Master. I'll protect them."

Eraqus nodded. "Thank you." His eyes glazed over, his body relaxed, and he fell face down onto the ground, in a pool of his own blood, motionless.

Quiet.

Everything fell quiet.

It was a moment of silence to mourn Master Eraqus.

Until Xehanort cast heal on himself. Then he cackled with laughter.

Terra stood up. He was now armed with two keyblades, and his eyes glowed with the power of darkness. "You piece of shit!" Terra shrieked as he rushed toward Master Xehanort. The Old Man parried Terra's blows with his own Keyblade. "Yes! That's it! Fight me with all of the darkness in your heart!"

"The darkness that you placed in me!" Terra yelled as he swung his keyblades. Xehanort yet again parried it.

"Foolish boy," the Old Man replied, laughing maniacally. "Has Eraqus taught you nothing? Darkness can neither be created nor destroyed." He cloaked his blade in darkness and parried another one of Terra's blows. "It can only be channeled! I simply opened up a channel into that which runs deep in your heart. That which you struggle to control!" He began taking the offensive. Xehanort moved faster than Terra expected. The old man whipped his blade against Terra's face. "It was an easy task, really. A young man like you with a heart that has never truly suffered any sort of trauma. A weak, sheltered heart, unscarred by the ways of the world. A heart with firm ideals of good and bad. A heart with a large superego suppressing an even larger id."

"SHUTUP!" Terra yelled. He raised his keyblades into the air, summoning bolts of rock from the ground, upward, toward Xehanort.

"A heart," the villain continued, while dodging Terra's attacks, "full of lust and desire! Tell, me, Terra, was it my doing that caused you to yearn for Aqua? Or did I simply evoke your true nature?"

"I'LL KILL YOU!" Terra yelled striking his blade against Master Xehanort's blade. The two were locked in a struggle, blades crossed, eyes meeting. "Shall you kill me like you killed your own Master, Terra?"

Terra jumped backwards. "I-I-I didn't! I didn't kill him! You did!" he stammered.

"With your generous aid."

The young man's sight blurred with tears. "No!"

"Yes!"

"NO!"

"You deny it, but his lifeless body is already rotting over there, right?"

"I'll kill you!"

"Really? Then meet me at the graveyard, boy." With a snap of his fingers, the old man summoned a portal of darkness and stepped backwards into it.

Terra rushed to follow him, but the portal closed right as he threw himself toward it. Tears flowed down Terra's cheeks as he realized that he did help Xehanort slay his master. Eraqus would have won had Terra not intervened. Now, Eraqus's dead body was lying just a few feet behind him. Terra didn't dare turn around to look at it again. He coughed and sputtered and sobbed for at least twenty minutes as he regretted that decision to jump in. "I'm so sorry Master!" Terra wept. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

Soon, the misery turned into rage. The powers of darkness enveloped Terra as he swore revenge on Xehanort. "I'll kill him. I'll kill him," Terra told himself. "I'll kill him like he killed my master!"

He stood up. But as his hand tightened on Master Eraqus's keyblade, Terra remembered Eraqus's dying words. "Protect them."

Master Eraqus hadn't said anything about revenge.

In fact, Eraqus's final words to Xehanort were, "I hate to do this, my friend…"

Even though Eraqus knew that he had to kill Xehanort, he didn't want to. That's why he hesitated.

Eraqus wouldn't want Terra to seek revenge. That's not what Terra promised. Terra promised to protect Aqua and Ven. Protect them from Xehanort.

Terra looked at Master's keyblade. He held it up into the sky as the sun started to set. "Master… I promise I'll protect them." He crossed his own keyblade with Eraqus's keyblade, forming an X in front of him. Then he slashed them downward. He ripped open a portal.

He walked through.

…

Of course Xehanort didn't go to the Keyblade Graveyard. He returned to his lair and stumbled into his study, where he kept a ton of potions. Although he had cast heal on himself, he was in serious pain. It took all of Xehanort's willpower to fight Terra after such a harsh battle with Eraqus.

While he gulped down potion after potion, Xehanort realized that he was fortunate that Terra was there to save him. And when Terra turned against him, Xehanort was lucky that a few antagonizing words were enough to ruin Terra's focus, and allow Xehanort a quick escape.

He also realized just how powerful with darkness Terra had become. Terra's body would be a perfect vessel.

But right now, Xehanort had neither the energy to fight or the intention to. He drank his 6th potion, and went to his room to rest. He decided that in about an hour, he would summon Vanitas, and the two of them would go to the Keyblade Graveyard to take Terra's body.


	89. I'm Too Late

Aqua didn't know this, but time in Neverland is inconsistent. For Ven, although he had spent months living there as Dum Dum the Lost Boy, only a couple of hours had passed in the normal stream of time. Basically time had slowed down for Ven. For Aqua, however, by the time she left that world, Ven had already spoken to Master Eraqus, and escaped from Xehanort's clutches. Terra had already finished the tournament at Olympus Coliseum, interrupted Eraqus's battle with Xehanort, and watched Master Eraqus die.

By the time Aqua landed in the palace at the Land of Departure—or what was left of it— she was too late.

She had decided to return to The Land of Departure after her encounter with Vanitas. She was feeling overwhelmed by the situation, and was hoping to ask Master Eraqus for advice. She was also hoping that Ven had returned home as well.

The first thing she saw as she flew toward the palace, was the collateral damage caused by the fight. The palace was pretty much in shambles. "What the heck?" Aqua said as she landed. "What happened? It looks like a meteor struck this place."

The next thing she saw, however, struck her speechless.

It was Master Eraqus's body. She saw the blood. She saw the gaping hole in his back. She saw that he wasn't moving. She stood there, in horror, stupefied. When she regained her senses, she screamed, "Master Eraqus! MASTER ERAQUS!" She ran toward him. She pointed her keyblade at him. She cast, "HEAL!"

Nothing happened.

"…" She started to breathe heavily. "M-master Eraqus?"

No response.

"Oh my God…" She staggered back. She tripped over a lawn chair that had been tossed aside during the battle. She fell onto her butt. She backed away. "This isn't happening…" She stared at Master Eraqus's dead body. She didn't want to look at it. She didn't want to see it. But she couldn't look away. "Master Eraqus! MASTER ERAQUS!" She was finally able to close her eyes. She screamed, "MASTER!"

No answer.

He was definitely dead.

Once she realized this, she couldn't move. She couldn't speak. She could barely breathe. She just shut her eyes and sat there, gasping for air, too overwhelmed to cry. Her mind was racing. She wondered, _What happened? What happened? What happened? This is murder. Someone killed him. Someone killed my master! Someone killed Master Eraqus! What the hell is going on?_

She grasped at her chest. She felt light-headed. She felt like she was going to throw up. She did throw up. She actually vomited. With her eyes still squeezed shut, she turned her head and retched.

And then she sat there, her eyes closed, unsure of what to do, panicking. It felt like centuries to her, but it was only twenty minutes. Maybe she would have stayed there longer, had a familiar voice not asked, "Are you okay?!" She still refused to open her eyes, as she heard the pitter-patter of little feet run toward her. Then the person called out, "Aqua! Is that you? Aqua?"

She opened her eyes. It was Mickey who had come to her aid. "M-mickey?"

He grabbed her in a hug. "What happened? Are you hurt?" he asked.

Aqua couldn't speak, because the tears suddenly started pouring like a waterfall. She sobbed violently as Mickey held her. He hugged her tightly while she cried, and tried not to look at the dead body that was lying in the middle of what used to be a courtyard.

Luckily, he didn't need to avert his eyes for much longer, because his star shard glowed. Before he knew it, both he and Aqua were teleported away.


	90. The Graveyard

**Author's Note:**

 **I haven't been updating recently because I was working on a book of poetry. (Technicolor Dreams: A Journal of Dark and Hopeful Thoughts by Emma Heart is available on Amazon Kindle!)**

 **I'm also working on another webcomic and an art commission (and I have a full-time job), so I'll be updating a few times this month as well. Sorry!**

 **...**

Ven had never imagined that he'd ever be spending a Tuesday evening all alone in an arid, abandoned wasteland, sobbing like an idiot, panicking because he was so overwhelmed by the desperate situation of his life.

…

Terra had never imagined that he'd ever be spending a Tuesday evening seeking out Xehanort in at an arid, abandoned wasteland, while seething in anger, ready to fight the old man to death. He was running around the place like a madman, looking left and right, above him and behind him, trying to find Xehanort. In a place where the only landforms were tall, rocky bluffs and dusty canyons in the distance, Terra didn't expect to have a hard time finding one person.

And when he did find someone, he last person he expected to find was Ventus.

Terra saw Ven sitting against a huge rock. The kid's knees were pulled to his chest and his face was buried in between. He was weeping, crying so loudly that Terra's anger immediately melted into concern. "Ven?" he called out, running toward him. "Ven!? Ven!"

Ven looked up and saw Terra. From that look of concern on Terra's face, Ven could tell that this was the real Terra, his friend— not the evil Terra, who had caused so much chaos around the worlds. He saw that Terra was in his right mind, and was coming to save him. So a wave of relief washed over Ven, and he was too overwhelmed to speak. He started crying even more.

When Terra reached Ven, he grabbed the boy in a hug and asked, "Why are you here? Why are you crying?" Ven couldn't respond. He cried so hard that he started coughing. "Hey, shh, stop crying." Terra ran his hands through Ven's hair. "I'm here. It's okay." Terra held him until Ven calmed down enough to speak.

"Terra!" Ven sobbed. "Terra I'm scared!"

"It's okay. I'm here."

"No! No! No, it's-it's not okay!" he stammered. "Master Eraqus is in trouble! We-we have to go help! Xehanort! This whole thing! He's crazy! He's gonna kill Master Eraqus! I was there and Master told me to run and threw me in a portal and now I'm here and we have to go back!"

Terra winced. He hugged Ven tighter. "I…I'm sorry Ven. I should have known… If only I had known… If I had known, I wouldn't have jumped in. I got in the way and…" Now it was Terra's turn to tremble and sob. "If only I had listened to Master, and I hadn't intervened…" Tears streamed from his eyes.

Now it was Ven's turn to be confused. "What?"

"I saw them fighting and I tried to stop them, but… I only made it worse."

"…What?"

"Xehanort… he… he won…"

"What do you mean? What?"

Terra didn't answer. Terra just cried.

"Why are you crying…?" Ven was struck speechless, because he had never actually seen Terra cry before. It was such an unusual sight, that it made Ven feel completely hopeless. This whole situation was so bad that it made Terra, the strongest guy Ven knew, cry ugly tears of helplessness. It broke Ven's heart to see Terra like that.

What's worse, is that Ven knew what the tears meant. Terra was crying because he was mourning.

Ven couldn't handle that.

So Ven slumped back, leaned against the rock behind him, and stared up at the darkening, dusty sky. His mind started to go blank. He ignored the sound of Terra weeping. He ignored the churning feeling in his stomach. He ignored the beating of his heart. He just stared at the sky. Although he was definitely awake, he kind of fell asleep.

So now Terra was crying, and Ven was in a quiet, trance-like state, at the Keyblade Graveyard, on what should have been a normal Tuesday evening.

…

Aqua had never imagined that she would be spending a Tuesday evening being comforted by a three-foot-tall mouse, after being teleported, via star-shard, from the destroyed Palace at the Land of Departure, to an arid, abandoned wasteland.

Aqua wept, because she couldn't get the image of Master Eraqus's dead body out of her mind. Everywhere she looked, she kept seeing him lying face down in a pool of his own blood, with that hideous gash in the back of his body. She was kneeling down, squeezing her eyes shut, begging her mind to stop seeing the horrible image.

Mickey patted her back and mourned with her. Although he didn't know the old man who had died, Mickey could tell that this person was very important to Aqua, and he sympathized with her. He kept silent, and showed his support with his presence.

"If only I'd gone back sooner!" Aqua cried out. "I could have done something! I could have saved him!" She pounded the ground, sending a cloud of dust into the air. "Why wasn't I there to protect him?" She hugged herself and leaned forward, so that her forehead touched the dirt. "What's going on?! Who killed him? Why? Why Master Eraqus? Why?!" She gasped for air. "Oh my God, where is Ven? Oh my god, what if Ven is—" She shuddered and sobbed.

Mickey spoke up. "Aqua, don't think like that!" He held up his star shard. "My star shard takes me to places where I'm needed. It took me to Ven once, so maybe it took us to Ven again." He put it back into his pocket, and helped Aqua to stand up. "I feel in my heart that Ven is somewhere here. So let's go look for him."

Mickey was right, for within a few minutes of wandering around, the two of them found Ven and Terra, leaning against a huge rock. VEN!" shrieked Aqua. "TERRA!" she ran to them. She was extremely happy to see them both alive. But as she got closer, she got worried. She saw Ven with a blank, dull look on his face. She saw Terra weeping. "Ven? Terra?"

Ven didn't reply.

Terra looked up at her and shook his head. He was crying too hard to speak.

Aqua didn't know what to say to Terra. Instead, she knelt down and hugged Ven. "Ven? Ven are you okay?"

Ven didn't reply.

"Ven?" she ran her hands through his hair. "Ven? Say something, Ven." She patted his cheeks. "Ven! Ven!" She shook him. "Ven!" She turned to Terra. "Terra?"

Terra wiped his face, and reached out to embrace Ven. "Ven?"

Mickey wanted to join the group hug, but his star shard decided against it. With a flash of light, Mickey was zapped away to somewhere else. Aqua and Terra were a little startled by Mickey's flashy teleportation. But once he was gone, they turned their focus to Ven.

"Ven?" they both said, trying to wake him up. Both of them cuddled him, and said, "We're here for you. Come back to us."

But he didn't.

So Aqua asked Terra, "What's going on with him?"

"I don't know. He wasn't like this at first. He was talking to me."

Aqua sighed. "Hopefully he'll snap out of it soon…" She pulled Ven closer to her, allowing him to rest his head against her chest. Then she turned to Terra. "Are you…still crazy?"

"No," he replied. "I'm sorry for acting crazy before. I'm so, so sorry Aqua."

"Okay." She reached out to touch his cheek. She smiled a little when he nuzzled his head against her hand. "Oh Terra, I'm glad… But… Terra…" She hesitated to tell Terra the truth. Was now the best time to tell him that Eraqus was dead? "… Master Eraqus…"

Terra winced and gritted his teeth. "I know. He's dead…"

Aqua's eyes widened. She backed away, pulling Ven along with her. "Did you—"

"It was Xehanort. But I…" He closed his eyes as the flashback played in his mind. "Xehanort was begging for help so I jumped in to stop the fight… and then he killed Master."

"Xehanort killed Master?" She couldn't believe it, frankly. "They were fighting? Why were they fighting? What's going on?"

"When I arrived, they were fighting to the death. Master Eraqus said that Xehanort wanted to hurt Ven, but Xehanort said that Master had misunderstood. I didn't know what was happening, so I jumped in to stop Master from killing Xehanort. Xehanort used that moment to kill Master, and then ran off. He told me to meet him here. So I came here. That's when I found Ven. And Ven told me that he was there when they started fighting. He said that Xehanort is evil, and is trying to hurt him. That's why Master threw him into a portal, and that's how he ended up here."

"So he doesn't know that Eraqus is…?"

"I told him."

"Then that's why he's like this." Aqua shook Ven. "Ven? Ven, please wake up."

Terra decided that now was a good time to add, "Xehanort should be coming here to fight me soon."

"What?! Why?"

"To kill me, I guess. To kill me so that he can get to Ven."

"Shit. Terra, pick Ven up. Let's go."

"Go where?"

"Um… uh… Radiant Garden. My family house is there and we can rest until Ven wakes up and we figure out what to do next."

"Okay." Terra grabbed Ven, and slung him over his shoulder. Terra activated his armor and Ven's armor, and Aqua activated hers. She pointed her keyblade in front of her and was about to open a portal.

"Whoa there, not so fast," said someone.

Aqua and Terra turned around to see a portal of darkness opening up behind them. From it, a masked boy wearing a black bodysuit etched with red engravings, walked out. Keyblade in hand, he said, "I can't let you guys go running off. Master Xehanort will be here soon."

"Vanitas!" Aqua yelled once she saw him.

Terra exclaimed, "Is that him? Vanitas?"

"Vanitas?" Ven mumbled, regaining consciousness. He looked up. "Vanitas?"

Vanitas waved hello. "Hi Venny! Looks like Master Xehanort killed the Old Man."

"What?!" Ven shouted.

"Yup. Did you already forget? I know you did, because _I_ remember how horrible we felt when we saw Terra crying about it." Vanitas paced around in a circle. "Seems like you also forgot that I told you Master Xehanort's plan. You're so terrible Ven." He shrugged his shoulders. "Guess I'll tell them. Hey, Terra, Aqua! Xehanort fought the Old Man because the Old Man was trying to protect Ven. Xehanort has this plan to create something called the chi-blade, using me and Ven's hearts. It's the ultimate weapon or something. Apparently it's for something called Kingdom Hearts? I don't really know. But I do know that making it will shatter our hearts, and it'll kill us. ButI don't care. I'm ready to die." Vanitas pointed to Terra. "Master is gonna take your body somehow. I don't know the details." He pointed to Aqua. "I'm still mad at you. You promised you'd never slap me again."

Terra mumbled, "Take my body? What are you talking about?"

Aqua stomped her feet. "Who are you?" she yelled. "Or what are you? I don't understand!"

Vanitas rolled his eyes. Of course none of them could see that, because of the mask. "You guys still don't get it, huh? I'm Ventus. But not really. Because I'm Vanitas. We're two pieces of the same puzzle. Two peas in a pod. I'm the ying to his yang, the dark to his light."

Aqua asked Ven, "Is he serious? Chi-blade? Kingdom Hearts?"

Ven shook his head, but the look on his face seemed like he realizing that Vanitas was telling the truth.

"Tsk, tsk, Ven," Vanitas said. "Still don't get it? I'm the summation of all your negative emotions. I am all your trauma. I am all your repressed memories. I am your fears. I am your worries. I am your pain. I am everything you hate about yourself. And I am cursed to suffer eternally, as a concentrated dumpster fire of misery. As long as Ven suppresses his suffering, I'll be alive to suffer in his stead. I'm so miserable, that I can create legions of monsters as manifestations of my feelings."

Aqua and Ven gasped. Terra scowled, because he had come to that conclusion earlier.

"Yes, that's right." Vanitas held up his hand. A tiny little flood appeared in it. "I create the unversed. They're kinda cute, right?" The flood hissed. Vanitas closed his hand, squishing it out of existence. "Every single unversed is a physical piece of my emotions. They take the shape of something from my memories. It hurts when I make them. It hurts when they die. But I'm used to the pain." Vanitas spread out his hands, and a black mist radiated off of him. The mist turned into a horde of various unversed.

Terra set Ven down. Aqua, Terra and Ven pulled out their keyblades. They assumed fighting stances. Vanitas turned around and petted one of his floods. "It's amazing to think that our heart is so damaged that it's strong enough to create these little monsters." Vanitas pointed to the trio of friends in front of him. "Attack, my minions."

…

There were so many of them.

Big ones, small ones, fast ones, tall ones. There were floods and candy bars and puppies and kite jellies and cheerleaders with chainsaws. Terra was fighting one that looked strangely similar to, "Vivi!?" Terra jumped back as the unversed version of the deceased friend of Hayner, Pence, and Olette attacked him with black magics.

Meanwhile Ven was fighting an unversed that looked like the Valkyrie lady from his favorite cellphone game, Clash Royally. "No! She's my favorite character!" Ven groaned as he stabbed her in the gut with his keyblade.

And Aqua was fighting one that looked like a giant starfish. "Oh my gosh, no, it's a wayfinder. It's a giant wayfinder starfish," she said as she used her thunder-based command style on it. When it exploded into money and confetti, she rushed to Terra's side and whacked the hell out of unversed Vivi. It poofed, and Terra said, "Thanks. I couldn't fight that one." Then he countered an attack from an unversed that looked like Maleficent. "But I can fight this one." He slammed his keyblade on its head.

"Shit," Ven shouted as a horde of bats swarmed around him. He used aero to clear them out, only to be tackled by a big sumo wrestler unversed. Aqua saw Ven get hit, and she shouted, "Ven!" as she shot ice at the unversed. Then she cast heal on him. Then she cast, "Flamethrower!" on a kangaroo wearing boxing gloves, who was punching Terra in the face. But she got hit upside the head by an unversed running around with a baseball bat.

"Aqua!" Ven screamed. He rose to his feet and panted. "Vanitas! Stop it!" he demanded. "Please!"

"No," replied Vanitas, who was standing back and watching the show. He laughed. He kept radiating black mist, creating more and more unversed. "This is fun to watch. Behind you, watch out."

"Huh?" Ven turned around just in time to get hit in the chest by a cannon ball. The unversed operating the cannon asked, "If the ball is shot at a 20 degree angle at an initial velocity 55 km/hr, what is the maximum height the ball reaches?" Ven grabbed his chest, and grunted. The last thing he expected was to be attacked by a physics homework problem.

Terra jumped in to smash the unversed and its cannon, and then used, "Magnera," to gather most of the unversed into one place. He then jumped and smashed them with a powerful strike. Darkness radiated off of his body, but he took a few deep breaths and controlled it. Aqua rose to her knees and pointed her keyblade at Vanitas. With a flick of her wrist, she encapsulated Vanitas in a bubble.

"Heal!" Ven cast on her, and her ran to help her to her feet.

Vanitas laughed. "You think this can hold me?" He summoned more unversed, filling the bubble with his minions until it was full to bursting. Aqua held her keyblade steady, and tightened the bubble.

Vanitas summoned more unversed.

Aqua tightened the bubble.

Vanitas summoned more unversed.

Aqua's arms trembled as she tried to keep the bubble from bursting.

Vanitas summoned more and more unversed, until he realized that he was feeling a little light-headed. The pressure of all these unversed squeezing him was making it difficult to breathe. Plus, there was only so much air in the bubble.

Aqua panted heavily as she continued to suffocate Vanitas. She was blinking back tears. Ven noticed. He said, "Aqua…"

Meanwhile, Terra was destroying the rest of the unversed army all around them. Ven turned around and watched Terra use the power of darkness to fight off a dozen unversed tigers. "Terra…" Ven mumbled, as he placed his hand over his heart. "You guys are fighting so hard for my sake…" He closed his eyes tightly. "But, somehow I also feel like you guys are fighting against me."

Aqua made the bubble even smaller. She was crushing Vanitas. "I'm so sorry Vanitas," she said, with tears in her eyes. "I don't want to do this, but you're giving me no other choice!" She made the bubble even smaller.

Ven dropped to his knees. He clutched his chest. He started to feel light-headed. He started to pant.

"Ven?" she called out.

Terra finished off the last of the unversed, and ran to help Aqua and Ven. "Heal!" he cast on both of them. Then he stooped down and wrapped an arm around Ven. "You okay?"

Ven cried out in pain.

"Ven!" both Aqua and Terra screamed.

Ven gasped for air. He was turning blue. He looked like someone was choking him. So Terra shook him. "Ven? What's going on? Ven?"

Aqua kept stealing glances at Ven, but she really needed to focus on crushing Vanitas to death. Not that she wanted to do it. But if she didn't, then he'd keep attacking them. So she bit her lip and decided to shrink the bubble yet again. That's when Ven crumpled over and gaged. And that's when Terra realized that, "They're connected. Aqua! They're connected!"

"What?"

"If you kill him, you'll kill Ven!"

"WHAT?!" she immediately enlarged the bubble. Ven gasped for air.

"Vanitas is half of Ven's heart!" Terra said, remembering what both Vanitas and Xehanort had told him earlier.

Ven breathed heavily. Aqua looked at him. Then she looked at Vanitas inside the bubble. He too was panting heavily. Aqua shook her head. "But this wasn't happening before," she muttered. She didn't know what to do now. If she released Vanitas he'd attack them. But if she attacked Vanitas, then she'd hurt Ven.

"Aqua," Ven called out as he looked up at her. He seemed exhausted. He looked like he just wanted to go to sleep forever. He looked absolutely drained of all his energy when he said, "Just end me."

"What?" Aqua said.

"Ven don't say that," said Terra.

"No, just end me." Ven closed his eyes. "I feel it. I feel some of his pain. And it hurts so much. Everything hurts so much. So just end me."

Aqua shook her head. Terra shook his head. They both didn't know what to do.

In a way, it was sort of fortunate that Xehanort showed up.


	91. Aqua's Ultra Instinct

Xehanort appeared out of a portal of darkness. He appeared on top of a rock pillar, a short distance in front of them. Hunching over, with his hands behind his back, he called out, "I see that you are all here. Ventus. Master Aqua. And foolish Young Terra. In full armor no less. Seems like you three are ready for a battle."

"Aqua! End me! Now!" Ven screamed.

But it was too late. With a snap of his fingers, Xehanort magically burst Aqua's bubble, freeing Vanitas. With another snap of his fingers, Xehanort made the rock pillar retreat into the ground. He stepped off of it and walked toward Vanitas. Vanitas was on the ground, laying still except for the slow rise and fall of his chest. Aqua, Terra and Ven watched as Xehanort reared his foot back, and kicked Vanitas in the side.

Vanitas grunted in pain, and rolled over. Ven who was still on his knees, also grunted in pain. He grabbed his side and glared at Xehanort. Xehanort chuckled. "So the merger process has begun. Interesting."

"Ven!" Aqua held Ven and stared at Vanitas.

"Merger process? What do you mean?" Terra shouted out.

"Young Terra, are you familiar with the idea of exothermic reactions and endothermic reactions?"

Terra didn't expect a chemistry question from a man who was trying to kill him. Just for the record, he does know that stuff, but because he was surprised, he replied, "What are you talking about?"

"When a chemical bond breaks, it can release energy. For instance, the combustion of wood produces fire. In a similar way, the clash of hearts can release energy." Xehanort kicked Vanitas yet again. Both he and Ven grunted in pain. Xehanort continued, "When I met this boy, his heart was weak. He was a pathetic human being. He was a worthless, unloved child. He had a heart so broken, so damaged, that it was easy to manipulate. I needed only a little bit of energy to split it into two entities. Then, as the separate hearts grew stronger apart, the potential energy of their merger increased. Simply put, a weak heart split into two, then strengthened, will release that strength when it merges together again. Therefore, when these two strong hearts, one of light, and one of darkness, clash, then the energy released will form the chi-blade. And with the chi-blade, I shall unlock kingdom hearts!"

Xehanort chuckled, and paced in a circle around Vanitas. "The separation process was simple. And as long as Ventus refused to accept the darkness in his heart, he and Vanitas would remain separate." Xehanort smiled viciously as he watched Vanitas rise to his feet. "It seems now that Ventus is realizing that he and Vanitas were once one, and will once again become one. It is now that he starts to feel the pain that Vanitas feels! It seems now that Ventus is realizing that his destiny is to fight this creature of darkness, and forge the chi-blade! Ventus! Come trade blows with Vanitas! Release the energy to form the weapon of mystic that is the chi-blade! Sacrifice your heart and your body to create that which only the legends speak of!"

Ven, too, rose to his feet. "But that doesn't make sense," Ven said. "He and I fought before."

Xehanort raised an eyebrow. "Is this so?"

Vanitas shook his head. "I was doing the fighting. He was whining, saying 'you're not real. You're not real!'" Vanitas summoned his keyblade. "But now you know, Ventus. I am real. I'm as real as all those unversed you fought. I'm as real as Terra or Aqua. And now that you know that I'm real, our real fight can begin."

Ventus looked up to Aqua and Terra. Then he looked at Vanitas and said, "And so what if you are real? I don't have to fight you. I'm not gonna make the chi-blade!"

Xehanort said, "As expected," He summoned his keyblade and pointed it at Aqua and Terra. "If you refuse to do my bidding, Ventus, then I shall kill your friends."

Ven's eyes widened. Aqua assured him, "Don't listen to him Ven."

But in the blink of an eye, Xehanort teleported behind Aqua. He would have whacked the hell out of her if not for her handy-dandy 360-degree ultimate automatic protection barrier. The recoil knocked Xehanort back several feet, and dust rose into the air as his shoes skidded on the dry ground.

Aqua quickly shoved Ven towards Terra, shouted, "Take him and leave!" before running after Xehanort.

"Are you crazy?" Terra shouted as he also ran after Xehanort. "No way I'm leaving you behind!" The two of them swung their blades at the Old Man, who teleported away. Both of them turned around to see Ven, still standing in the middle of the dusty field. Vanitas charged toward him. Aqua put up a shield between them, and then captured Vanitas in a bubble again. Then Aqua said to Terra, "Please, just listen to me! You've got to protect Ven!"

"Master's dying wish was for me to protect you both! So dammit, I'm gonna find a way to protect you and Ven!"

Right as he said that Xehanort appeared behind Aqua. Terra countered right as Xehanort tried to stab her. Using both his keyblade and Master Eraqus's keyblade, Terra landed a couple powerful blows on Xehanort. Aqua ran after Ven and grabbed his hand and pulled him away, shouting, "Snap out of it Ven! You've got to run away!"

Ven shook his head. "No, no, I can't—"

"Go back to Radiant Garden and hide with Rio, okay? Terra and I will take care of this."

"NO!" Ven shouted, pulling his hand away from Aqua. "I'm not gonna run away anymore! I'm gonna stay here and fight, because I'd rather die than lose everyone I love!"

Aqua stared into Ven's desperate eyes. "Ven…" she mumbled.

"WATCH OUT!" Ven suddenly yelled as he tackled her. Somehow, Vanitas had broken out of the bubble and was riding on a wave of ancient keyblades. Ven and Aqua laid on the ground as the keyblades passed over them… and headed toward Terra. "Terra!" they screamed.

"ARGH!" Terra took the brunt of the attack. _CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!_ The Keyblades smashed against his armor, denting it, chipping it, tearing it apart, and cutting into his flesh.

"HAHAHA!" Vanitas laughed as he soared through the darkening sky.

"Ice Beam!" Aqua called out as she shot Vanitas down with a magical chunk of ice.

Of course that hurt Ven as well. He grabbed at his chest and shouted, "Terra!" He struggled to his feet, and charged toward his friend. "Terra!"

But Xehanort teleported in front of him. The wicked old man smirked like the monster from Ven's worse nightmares as he grabbed Ven by the helmet of his armor. With his free hand, Xehanort snapped his fingers. A rock pillar raised beneath his feet, raising the old man and his captive high into the sky.

"AQUAAAAAAAAAAAA! TERRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Ven screamed.

"Ven!" Terra shouted.

"Ven! No! Noooo!" Aqua screamed. "Xehanort! Stop! This!"

Xehanort chuckled. His grasp tightened around Ven's head. Ven yelled his last words, "Help me!"

Then was engulfed by fire.

And then he was consumed by ice.

And Xehanort tossed his body was tossed asunder like yesterday's newspaper.

Aqua, was too shocked to move. Terra, however, dashed like mad, throwing himself at the coarse rocky ground below to catch Ven's body. Xehanort chuckled, "There goes your little friend."

Holding Ven's cold body, Terra shook his head in disbelief. "No… no this can't…"

Something snapped in Aqua.

Aqua loved Ven like a little brother, or her own child. A decent chunk of her life these past three years had revolved around taking care of him. Tears gathered in her eyes as she thought about all the time that she had spent spoiling him with affection. All the laughs. All the frustration. All the tears. All the hugs.

And now, Xehanort had just frozen him solid. And if she didn't protect Ven, then Xehanort would kill him. Xehanort was seriously going to kill Ven. And then he'd kill Terra. And then he'd kill her.

But wasn't the reason she became a keyblade master to protect the people she loved?

So Aqua stood up. It didn't matter that every bone in her body ached. It didn't matter that one of her teeth was loose. So what if she tasted her own blood in her mouth?

Fuck that shit.

She had to kill this Old Man.

Her shoulder tensed and her voice cracked as she stuttered, "I-I w-won't le-let you get away with this!"

Xehanort chuckled viciously. "Hehehe."

"GGRRRRRR! Grrrrr! GRRRR!" Aqua grunted as she breathed rapidly and shallowly.

Grey clouds rolled onto the horizon. Pebbles and rocks at her feet began to float into the air. A bolt of thunder raced through the skies. Aqua stammered, "I w-w-won't let you…" Her breathing became more rapid. Thunder clapped. Lighting struck the ground behind her.

"Eh?!" Master Xehanort gasped.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-" Aqua screamed. A shockwave rippled through the air. The ground around her began to crumble. The force of her anger blasted a crater underneath her. And a deeper crater. And a deeper one still.

Rocks were thrown into the air and smashed into each other. A tornado formed around her. "UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-" She kept screaming. The air began to steam around her. "UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKKKKKKKK!"

Xehanort gasped. "Wh-wha-what is this?"

With yet another strike of lightning, Aqua's hair assumed a golden color. Of course, no one could see that, because she was wearing her armoured helmet.

But Xehanort felt the change. He felt the massive increase in her power level. Xehanort now was the one to tremble. He had a lot of contingency plans, but not one to deal with this. He had no idea that Aqua was that powerful, and he didn't know what the hell to expect.

Aqua's breathing slowed. She turned to Terra. "Terra, listen carefully, you must leave this graveyard now!"

"Huahhahhu?" exclaimed a shocked Terra.

Aqua roared, "This is the last time I'm going to tell you! I am MASTER AQUA and I'm telling you to take Ven and get out of here, Terra!"

Terra obeyed. Holding Ven in his arms, he took off running.

Xehanort growled. "Vanitas! Do whatever you must to achieve your purpose! Fight Ventus! Forge the chi-blade!"

The poor boy was on the ground, groaning. He struggled to his feet and summoned his keyblade. He coughed up a little bit of blood, and chased after Ven and Terra. Aqua grunted, but she decided to trust Terra. Right now, she had to fight Xehanort. So she pointed her keyblade at him. "Xehanort. This ends here."

The Old Man scoffed. "Your master couldn't stop me. What makes you think you can?"

Aqua rushed toward him. She slashed her blade. He blocked her attack with his blade. The blow pushed both of them back. But that didn't stop them. _CLANG! BAM! BANG!_ They clashed hard and fast. Trading blow after blow after blow. The ground around them broke into pieces. They blew craters in the ground. They reduced mountains into dust. _CLANG! BAM! BANG!_ With each blow, the ground shook. Dust rose into the air, and the storm brewing overhead whipped it into a dust storm.

Aqua smacked Xehanort on the shoulder. Xehanort smacked her in the side so hard that he shattered her armor. She winced in pain but she struck Xehanort on the temple. He stuck her in the back. She swung for his knees but he jumped over her and slashed her in the back. She turned around and slashed. He dodged and shot balls of darkness at her.

She dodged and cast, "Thunder!"

He sidestepped her magic.

"Thunder! THUNDER! THUNDARA! THUNDARAGA! THUNDERAGARAGA!"

He dodged her attacks like it was child's play. "Panicked aren't we, young Aqua? Is that even a real spell?"

"Fuck you! Thunderbolt! Blizaga! Firaga! Aeroaga! Mine Square! Hyperbeam!" She shot magics at him rapid fire, and he reflected them all with his keyblade. He smirked, and said, "Perhaps I've overestimated you." With a flick of his blade and a simple, "Stopza." He trapped her in a time-stop.

Aqua couldn't move, but she could still hear and see the old man as he paced around her in a circle. "Pathetic. You don't even deserve the title of keyblade master." He struck a dozen blows on her before she could finally break out of his spell. And once she did, she smacked him across the face with the blunt side of her blade and backed away.

He had broken apart most of her armor. She still had her chest plate, her armored boots and her helmet, but the rest of her armor was scattered around the battlefield. Her whole body ached. Even in his old age, Xehanort was definitely strong. She couldn't get caught in that attack again. So she cast, "Heal—"

"Ah, I can't have you do that!" He surrounded her with dark portals and shot darkness beams at her. She jumped out of the way and rolled. He appeared behind her and kicked her. She skidded in the dirt and laid on the floor, grunting in pain. But she looked up in time to see Xehanort shout "Perish!" She rolled out of the way of a finishing blow. And she shot him with a, "Bubble beam!"

It hit him square in the chest, and knocked him back into a bunch of mines that she had hidden earlier. Then she rushed him and slammed her blade against his.

He jumped back and summoned pillars of darkness. The pillars merged into a wall that separated her from him.

The old man grabbed his throbbing head and grunted, "You shall never defeat me! I shall have it! I shall have Kingdom Hearts!"

Aqua blasted through the darkness with a beam of light. "Why? Why are you doing all this? Why are you hurting Ven? Why'd you kill my master? Master Eraqus was your friend!"

"Foolish girl. What does that boy matter? What do friends matter? All that matters is knowledge. Power. Control over all creation itself!"

Aqua shook her head. "No, you're the foolish one! Friends are more important that any of that! When you have people you love, life has meaning! You could have had people in your life! Master Eraqus loved you like a brother! Yet you killed him!" She charged after him. He once more blocked her attack. As she back-flipped away, Xehanort summoned a dark phantom keyblade above her. It was a giant keyblade shadow, made of pure darkness. She looked up just in time, and put up a barrier as it struck down upon her. It broke through, but Aqua dodged backwards.

Only to end up knee-deep in a pool of dark sludge. It stuck her to the ground so she couldn't move. Xehanort approached her slowly, holding onto his shoulder and dragging his keyblade along the floor. "Friends are meaningless."

"No they aren't! My friends are my strength!"

"And your weakness! If not for your commitment to your friends, you wouldn't have sacrificed your life here." He rose his blade. She parried his strike.

"If not for my commitment to my friends, I wouldn't be the person I am today! Maybe if you accepted others into your heart, you wouldn't have become such an evil piece of shit!"

"Silence girl!" Xehanort stuck her across the face with his blade, knocking off her helmet. He was surprised to see a blonde haired girl underneath it. But he was certain that this was Aqua. _Did she change forms?_ He wondered. Regardless, he parried a strike from her, and knocked her keyblade out of her hand. "You have been a thorn on my side for long enough! You will ruin my plans no longer! You will die!" He once again summoned the phantom dark keyblade. "Enter into eternal sleep!" He was about to slash the sword of darkness down upon Aqua.

But he stopped.

His eyes widened.

He gasped.

He coughed.

He coughed up blood.

"B-b-but when?" he mumbled as he looked down at his chest. Sticking out through his ribcage was Aqua's keyblade.

Aqua pulled herself out of the sludge. "Your mistake was doubting the strength that my friends give me." She walked closer to Xehanort. Her keyblade returned to her hand. "Terra has knocked my keyblade out of my hand a million times. And Ven taught me how to quickly call it back. Although I never thought I'd use it to stab my master's old friend in the back."

Xehanort dropped to his knees. He grasped at his chest. "Ironic, is it not? That I should fall the same way as that idiot, Eraqus." He coughed up more blood. "What a shame. What a damn shame." He looked up at Aqua. "There is one thing that irritates me, though," he said coughing up more blood. "Why is it that you look familiar?" His vision was going hazy, yet he tried to analyze her face.

The blonde hair.

The blue eyes.

The soft pink, frowned lips.

Her fighting stance.

"Trisha?" the old man mumbled. Yes, this girl looked exactly like the young woman who had once studied the keyblade alongside him.

"No," replied Aqua. "My name is Master Aquamarine D'Vitae." She pointed her keyblade at him. "And you killed my master. You killed your own friend, a man who loved you like family. But I'm not fighting you because I want revenge. My master wouldn't have wanted me to seek revenge." The edge of her keyblade glowed brighter and brighter. "I'm not doing this because I want to kill you, Xehanort. I'm doing this because I want to make sure you don't hurt anyone else. I'm doing this because if I don't, then Ven and Terra will get hurt. I'm doing this to protect my friends." The light at the tip of her keyblade glowed so bright that Xehanort felt he would be overwhelmed by its power before the attack actually hit him. Aqua continued, "You, Xehanort, are a being of darkness. But I know that you are one of many, in a world that is saturated with beings of darkness. There will always be darkness in the world. But there will also be people like me, people who dwell in the light. People who master the ways of the keyblade. People who combat that darkness."

"You really are Eraqus's student," the old man grunted. "He could never stop running his damn mouth. Cease this whining. End me already."

Aqua took a deep breath. "I refuse to allow you to hurt my friends—or anyone one else, ever again. Xehanort, this is your end. Goodbye." And with a flash of light, she disintegrated Xehanort into nothing but glittering sparkles.

And just like that, he was no more. Aqua breathed heavily as she watched the sparkles fall to the ground, and dry up into sharp pieces of obsidian rock. The storm above reached its peak, and with a loud crash of thunder, rain started to pour. Aqua dropped to her knees. "So that's that…" she muttered. Her hair lost its blonde hue, and darkened back to it aqua blue.

Then she heard the sound of far-off screaming. "NO! NO! NO! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP! I DON'T WANT TO REMEMBER!"

"Ven?" she said to herself. And she found the strength to rise to her feet and limp toward the sound.


	92. Talk No Jutsu

Terra ran across the desolate wasteland, carrying Ven's frozen body in his arms, begging him, "Don't die Ven! Please don't die!" He slung Ven's body over his shoulder, pointed his keyblade in front of him, and tried to open a portal.

Alas, Vanitas descended upon them, slashing a gaping hole in Terra's back. Terra screamed in agony. But as a master of countering, Terra retaliated with equal force. Terra smacked his blade against Vanitas's face so hard that he shattered the boy's mask.

And he saw the boy's face. Black, spiky hair. Golden, teary, heavy eyes. A face just like Ven's. He looked exhausted. He looked miserable. He looked like he had been crying this entire time.

Vanitas smashed his keyblade against Terra's. The boy screamed, "I'm trapped in this hell of emotions because Ven can't deal with them!" Sparks flew as Terra blocked another strike from Vanitas. "You could never imagine how it feels to be the personification of a fucked up little boy's worst nightmares, to bear the weight of his unwanted memories, to suffer the trauma that he can't cope with! Every day is a living hell!" He slashed and slashed and slashed his blade. "I can't sleep, because every time I close my eyes, I flashback to my mother beating me to near death! I remember the pain of training with Master Xehanort! I feel like I'm about to be murdered by that serial killer!"

He swung his blade madly. "No matter what I do, I can't stop thinking about all the shit I've suffered. I'm stuck in a loop of shitty memories and I can't escape the pain that comes along with them! Is that my destiny? Am I forever cursed to bear the burden of Ven's past while he moves on and lives happily? That's not fair!"

Vanitas started crying again. Tears ran down his face faster than he was swinging his blade. "It hurts! Everyday hurts! It hurts so much that I don't want to live anymore! It hurts so much that I can't handle it! I want to fight the memories. I want to make them stop. It overwhelms me to the point where my emotions spring out of me and take shape. And I fight them. And they hurt even worse. They come back ten times worse. But I don't know how else to handle it but to fight it!"

He slowed down his attacks as he admitted. "I can't stop the unversed! I can't stop the pain! I can't stop myself from living! I can't! I'm trapped in hell, Terra! I'm trapped in hell! And it hurts so much! My existence is nothing but pain! I just want the pain to stop! Is that such a greedy thing to ask for?"

Vanitas stopped attacking. "I've reached my limit. I really have. I've suffered a million nightmares. I've re-lived a trillion flashbacks. I've only known fear and pain and hopelessness. And I can't handle it anymore. What do I do, Terra? How do I stop everything from hurting so much? You helped him! So please, help me!"

Terra kept his guard up. This speech could be a wicket ploy to distract him. After all, Xehanort used the same pity tactics to trick Terra into helping him slay Eraqus.

But Vanitas stood there, sobbing, blubbering like an idiot.

And Terra couldn't help but see Vanitas the same way he saw twelve-year-old Ven when the little bastard would come crying to him in the middle of the night, begging, "Can I sleep in your room? Please? I had a nightmare!"

But that was Ven, not Van. Ven was frozen in ice, on the verge of death. Van had cut a gash down Terra's back, which, by the way, was bleeding profusely. Terra had to end this battle soon, or else he'd die too. So he pointed his blade at Vanitas, "Quit the waterworks you piece of shit." And he began to charge up a dark impulse beam.

Vanitas didn't try to dodge. He didn't raise his blade. He didn't move. He just stood there, sobbing, shivering, fiercely trying to wipe the tears.

Terra couldn't stand it. He lowered his keyblade, walked toward the boy, and hugged him. "Shhhh, stop crying," he said.

Vanitas gasped. For the first time in his life, he felt a touch that wasn't painful. He was frozen in fear… no, confusion… no, shock, as Terra ruffled his hair and said, "It's okay. Everything's gonna be okay."

Vanitas shook his head, and asked, "How do you know?"

"Because I'm the smartest guy in the world," Terra teased. He pinched Vanitas's nose.

"Hahaha," Vanitas laughed. He genuinely laughed as he wiped away tears. "Oh fuck, this is what he had." He gripped his chest and laughed and sobbed. "It's so fucking unfair. He had you. He had Aqua. He had Master Eraqus. I had nothing. It's almost insane how horrible my life has been. Terra, can you just kill me? Please?"

"You don't want to die, do you?"

"No!" screamed Vanitas. "I don't! I see how happy life can be! I know how Ven feels! I want that! That's all I want! But Master Xehanort says the only way to stop the pain is to forge my heart into the chi-blade! He says the only end to pain is death! But I don't want to trade pain for nothingness! I want to be happy!"

Terra cuddled Vanitas, and said, "You can be happy. Ven has enough happiness to share. Go back to Ven. Become whole again."

"Fuck that. He doesn't want me. He doesn't even admit that I exist."

Sighing, Terra nodded. "I know how that feels. When the darkness in my heart bared its ugly fangs, I ran away from it. I tried to suppress it. I denied it. I tried to hide it from myself. I never looked it right in the face and acknowledged it. Because of that, I messed up. I messed up really bad…" Terra closed his eyes and took a moment of silence. "Vanitas, Master Eraqus told me that the only way to fight the darkness in your heart is to first admit that it's there. After all, if you don't believe you have a problem, you can't fix it. You're supposed to accept the darkness in your heart honestly, and believe in yourself that you can overcome it. It's difficult, and it feels impossible, but it is possible. It's possible Vanitas."

Vanitas shrugged. "Blah blah blah, so what?"

"Go to Ven, but instead of fighting to forge the chi-blade, fight to mend your hearts. You have him prisoner, right? So you might as well try."

"…You really think I can do it?"

"Yup. I believe in you. I really do." He guided Vanitas toward Ven. "Promise me you'll try to make things right?"

Vanitas stood in front of the frozen Ventus. "Okay." He took one last look at Terra. Terra ruffled his hair. Vanitas nodded. Then he knelt down. He touched his forehead against Ven's.

There was a flash of light.

Vanitas disappeared. Terra cast, "Cure," on himself, to try to stop the bleeding. And although it helped a little, Terra knew he needed to get help soon. Yet, even though he was bleeding to death, Terra sat down beside Ven. He watched as the boy's body began to thaw.

Terra whispered, "Please Vanitas, do the right thing…"


	93. A Scattered Memory

He remembered.

Seven-year-old Ven walked home with a group of kids from school. As he approached the front door of his small two-bedroom apartment on the sixth floor of the high-rise building, he bid goodbye to the kids who lived in the floors above him.

When he entered inside the apartment, everything was dark. That was a good sign. That meant that Mom and Dad weren't home. Therefore, Ven could quickly find something to eat and hide in his room until morning.

He rushed to the fridge and opened it. Other than a couple dozen pouches of white crystalline powder, there was nothing inside. And Ven knew better than to touch that white stuff. He pouted and closed the fridge. Pulling up a chair, he climbed up onto the counter so that he could open up one of the cabinets. Inside was a box of oatmeal, a few tea bags, a rotten apple and a bag of potato chips. Ven grabbed the chips, climbed down and started eating as he headed to the room that he shared with his older brother.

The little boy sat down in the far corner of the room, beside his bed, in order to keep out of sight. Taking out his notebook, he began to work on his homework. If he did well, he'd earn a gold star sticker. And he loved those. It was the little things that made him happy. He started with history. Then science. Halfway through his math assignment, Ven realized that he was thirsty. He walked toward the kitchen, found his favorite plastic blue cup, and held it up to the rusty faucet.

Right then, he heard the sound of a someone opening the door. Ven tensed. When he saw his 13-year-old brother enter the apartment, Ven exhaled in relief. He drank his water while walking toward Notus. "Hi Big Bro," he said to his brother. Notus glanced at Ven dismissively. The older boy retreated to their shared room. With slumped shoulders, Ven followed.

Math homework, finished. Time to start his monthly book report. Ven had chosen to read a story about a little girl who learned to take care of herself, because her parents and older brother didn't pay any attention to her. She was smart and mature and eventually learned to use magic to protect herself from the evil school principal that hated her (and all the children in the land). In the end, the girl was adopted by her favorite teacher, who loved her.

He sniffled a little as he put his pencil against his paper and wrote the first few words of his report. Notus, who was reading a comic book on the bed, glanced at Ven, but said nothing. Right as Ven finished his book report, he heard the sound of a front door slamming. Quickly Ven shoved all of his work into his backpack and crawled under the bed.

"FUCK!" shouted Ven's dad. "Fuck those cheating little fuckers!" There was the sound of ceramic shattering.

"How the hell is breaking my plates gonna fix the problem?" shouted Ven's mother. "The only nice shit we have in this house and you break it!"

"Those fuckers just cheated me and you're worried about your damn plates?"

"Maybe you should stop betting on sports games with your coworkers, then, huh?"

"Fuck you!" More ceramic shattered.

Ven tucked himself into a fetal position and whimpered. Notus complained, "Shut up. There's no point in being scared. He's gonna get high soon and he's calm when he's high."

Their bedroom door creaked open. Mom peeked inside. "Hi kids."

Notus didn't respond.

So the woman entered the room. "This place is a mess." She kicked aside a stray pair of dirty boxers. "Where's Venny?" she asked. Still no response from Notus. "Venny? Ventus? Where are you?" She left the room.

Ven exhaled a breath that he didn't know he was holding. Notus again complained, "She's not high. You don't need to hide from her." Yet Ven did not budge from his spot. A few minutes later, their mom once again entered the room. "Venny! Venny!" she shouted. "Note, where's your brother?"

"Why do you fucking care?" replied Notus.

She snapped, "Because I can't find him!"

"You must be stupid if you're losing hide-and-seek with a seven-year-old."

She spat in his face. "Go burn in hell you piece of shit."

He nonchalantly wiped it off. "That's why I don't talk to anyone in this fucking house."

"Please just tell me where your brother is?" she pleaded. "Please?"

He ignored her. So she looked into the closet. Then she checked under a pile of laundry. Finally, she got on her knees and searched under the bed. Ven held his breath, as though that would cause him to become invisible.

"Venny! There you are!" She dragged him out from his hiding spot. "Found you!" She embraced him and kissed the top of his head. "How are you today?"

Ven shuddered in fear. He couldn't speak.

"Don't ignore me," she begged. "No one listens to me but you. Please Venny? Please?" She stroked his hair and sat him on her lap. "So how was your day?"

Hesitantly, Ven spoke up, "Okay."

"What did you do?"

"I went to school."

"Good. What did you do at school?"

Although he knew that this moment wouldn't last, Ven felt very grateful for the positive attention. "I got a gold sticker because I got a good grade on my math test."

"Wow!" She pinched his cheek. "Look at that! You're so smart. I used to be smart like that too."

Notus laughed at that notion. She glared at him. Ven tried to regain her attention. "And I swept the classroom after school. Then I walked home with James and Sandy."

"The kids from upstairs?"

Ven nodded.

"That's nice. What do you want for dinner?"

Notus once again laughed sarcastically. "As if you're going to cook. Don't get his hopes up."

"I am. I'm going to whip up a really nice dinner."

"Really? Because there's nothing to eat in this house."

"Shut up!"

Notus rolled his eyes. He returned his attention to his comic book, while she returned her attention to Ven. "Name whatever you want for dinner Ven."

He quietly asked, "Can we get McRonalds?"

"Sure!" The woman stood up. "Just me and you. Notus can starve."

Notus shrugged. "The joke is on you, because Michael's mom already bought me McRonalds."

"Who's Michael?"

"A friend of mine whose parents actually love him."

She picked up a shirt from the floor and threw it at him. "Go live with Michael then, you piece of shit!" She dragged Ven along, out of the room. They walked past the living room, where Ven's father had opened up a pack of the white stuff, and had cut it into lines on the table. Placing a plastic pink straw into his nose, he snorted a row and leaned back against the sofa, as if the weight of the world had been lifted off of his shoulder.

Ven's mother stopped for a few minutes to watch him chill. She fidgeted uncomfortably, her eyes darting back and forth between Ven and the enticing white powder. "Mom don't," Ven begged.

Ven's father said, "Oh the colors are amazing." He faced his wife. "Honey, the colors. Come see the colors."

She bit her lower lip.

"I'm sorry I yelled," said Ven's father. "I'm sorry I broke the plates. I shouldn't be mad when there's so many colors. Come see the colors."

Ven tried to pull her away. "Mom, no! Let's go get McRonalds!"

His mother patted his head. "Just one, Ven. Just one row and then we'll go to McRonalds." She took a seat beside her husband, and partook of the illicit substance. Tears in his eyes, Ven ran back to his room and hid under the bed again.

Notus scoffed, saying, "I don't know why you try to hide."

"I'm scared," Ven whimpered.

"Then run away. Run away where she won't find you. Use your fucking head and think Ventus." Notus turned a page in his comic book.

It was too late for that now. Ven was too scared to emerge from his hiding spot. So the kid trembled under the bed, anxiously counting down the minutes until the inevitable. About ten minutes later, Ven heard the door creak open. He once again held his breath.

"A demon," the boys' mother whispered. "There's a demon here." She clenched piece of a broken plate in her hand so tightly that it sliced the skin of her fingers. "And there's one there too! There's a whole army of them." She stabbed at thin air. "Stop laughing!" she demanded. "Stop laughing!" She ran around the room, stabbing at thin air. "Why are they so fast?" She looked to Notus. "Why are they so fast?"

Notus kept silent. Their mother stabbed the wall of the apartment. She stabbed the floor. She wildly swung and swung and swung, while proudly declaring, "I'll kill all the demons!" She tired herself out after several minutes of this. "I think I got them all," she said. She began to walk out of the room.

But she paused.

Ven could see her feet from an opening under the bed. He watched her feet get closer. He closed his eyes. He felt himself being yanked from his hiding spot and thrown against the wall. And then he felt the piercing pain of being repeatedly stabbed. He tried to shield himself with his arms, to cover his face and his chest. She was screaming, "It's the devil! It's the devil!"

"Mom! Stop!" Ven shrieked. "Mom! No! It's me! Stop! Help! Help! Notus! Help!"

Notus hid his face behind his comic book.

Eventually, the woman did stop, but not before leaving some nasty wounds on the little boy's body. He wept in pain and fear as she left the room. Bleeding, Ven looked to Notus. Notus avoided eye contact. Ven didn't move. He wept, tears mixing in with blood, for what seemed like an eternity.

Finally, his mother returned to the room. Her expression was wide-eyed, in disbelief. Her pace was slow, and for a minute, she could only witness the result of her drug-fueled rampage. She turned to Notus, and shouted, "Why didn't you stop me?!"

Notus unconsciously traced a long scar that started at his left shoulder, ran down his forearm, and stopped at the ball of his wrist. Ven had heard him tell his friend it was from a bicycle accident. It wasn't. He replied, "Why can't you stop taking grystal? You know it makes you go crazy."

Instead of answering that question, she turned her attention to Ven. "Let's clean you up." She was able to patch up the wounds with a lot of gauze and antiseptic. Ven cried the entire time. "Shh, shh!" she pleaded. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I won't do it again. I promise. Shhh! Okay? Shh! If you're quiet, I'll take you to McRonalds and buy whatever you want, okay? Shhh…."

Once Ven calmed down and his wounds were bandaged, she told him, "Don't tell anyone, okay? Or else they'll take you away from Mommy. So don't tell anyone."

Ven kept quiet.

"If they take you away from Mommy, they'll put you somewhere even worse. You know that, right?"

Ven kept quiet.

Her voice became more desperate. "You think it's bad now? If they take you away, they'll lock in in a dark room, all by yourself. They won't let you go to school. They won't let you play outside. They won't feed you. They'll just force you to sit in that room all alone until you die. You don't want that, right?"

Ven shook his head.

"And they'll do the same to Mommy. You don't want that for me, right? You know I try to be a good mom, right? I just make mistakes."

Ven kept quiet.

"I'm so sorry. Okay?"

Ven nodded.

"So if anyone asks, tell them that…um… you were in a car accident, okay? It wasn't serious, but you got hurt."

Ven nodded.

"What will you say if anyone asks?"

Ven said, "I was in a car accident."

"And?"

"It wasn't serious but I got hurt."

"Good. Good." She dressed him in a long sleeved hoodie, to hide the wounds. "Okay, let's go to McRonalds."

Ven nodded.

She kissed his forehead. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I swear I won't do it again."

Ven nodded.

But he knew it was a lie. She had said the same thing many times before. He had the scars to prove it.


	94. And A Far Off Dream

"NO! I DON'T WANT TO REMEMBER!" Ven was on his knees, grasping at his head, screaming so loud that his voice echoed off of the mountains in the distance. "NO! NO! NO! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP! I DON'T WANT TO REMEMBER!" Terra watched helplessly as Ven battled his inner demons.

In their head, Vanitas, too, was watching Ven. "Now you feel just a bit of what I've been feeling for the past three years. Endless replays of memories that I don't want to remember." Vanitas had remembered each instance of physical abuse with high-definition clarity.

If Ven wasn't currently reliving the traumatic flashbacks, he probably wouldn't believe that such situations could ever occur—much more, that it had occurred to him. Even now, he was absolutely mortified by the vicious beatings that he had suffered at the hands of his own mother. No wonder Ven had repressed the memories. Remembering them was unbearable.

The early childhood abuse that Ven had suffered culminated to a horrific climax when he was eight-years-old. It was _the incident_. The one that Notus had mentioned. "NO! NO!" Ven shrieked. But shouting wouldn't change the past. Denying the reality of the past wasn't an option either. Ven clawed at his forehead while tears streamed from his eyes. "STOP! STOP IT! STOP!"

Vanitas glanced at his hand. It was semi-translucent. He raised it, opened and closed his fingers, and then brought it to his chest. "Funny thing, though, is I don't feel any better watching you suffer it. I just feel empty. But empty is better than pain, I guess? Congratulations, Ven. You've past the first milestone. After _the incident_ , our mind suffered its first reset. We couldn't remember who we were or what had happened. We had no memory of our past. We became blank. That's when Master Xehanort adopted us."

Ven remembered. He remembered being in the hospital, where everything was painted white and gray. He remembered the doctors with their clipboards sighing and shaking their head, whispering to themselves, "Poor kid." True to his mother's words, they did lock Ven up in a dark room, all alone, in the deepest part of the mental health ward. Perhaps they would have let him rot there, had that wicked old man not walked into his room one day.

"Sir, there are plenty of normal kids to adopt," one of the doctors had said to Xehanort. "This one is violent. He's a danger to himself and others."

In retrospect, Ven could tell the old man's smile was phony when he said, "Oh, but I'm seeking to adopt the worst of the worst, the abandoned and hopeless. For you see, I have devoted my life to caring for the children who are rejected by all others."

"You are such a kind man," said the doctor. "But I must warn you, he's been in a catatonic state since the _incident_. He hasn't spoken a word."

"I will help him improve very soon."

Thus began Ventus's second chance at life. Which was, again, marked by constant physical abuse—this time, in the form of "training" with Master Xehanort. Moreover, the man consistently berated Ven, and manipulated his emotions. But what could Ven do? Xehanort became the only person in Ven's life; in fact, the only person that this "new" Ventus had ever known.

Curling into a ball, Ven kept screaming. "HELP ME! HELP ME! PLEASE! PLEASE! SOMEONE HELP!"

"You can't change the memories. You can only remember them. Master Xehanort was terrible to us. But we didn't know any better. We wanted to make him proud. He only sought to hurt us… He caused our second reset. He broke our heart in two."

"STOP! IT HURTS!"

Vanitas knelt down beside Ven, who had begun to rock back and forth. "We reset our memories again. But this time, all the repressed memories personified into me. That way, anytime you experienced a major traumatic event, instead of resetting your entire memory to repress it, you could condense it into a droplet of darkness, darkness that enters my heart, so that only I am forced to remember."

Ven's eyes were wide, tear-stricken and blood-shot. To his darker half, he said, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry that it hurt so bad for so long. I'm so sorry."

Vanitas shrugged. "It's okay. It'll stop hurting really soon." By now, the entire left half of Vanitas's body had begun to fade away. "This is what I've always wanted, but it's terrifying. I'm not going to exist anymore. And it doesn't feel good. It feels lonely. I'm scared."

"I am too," Ven sobbed. "I'm so scared." He reached out to touch Vanitas's shoulder. "But that means that we're one and the same. So you won't disappear. You'll still be very real. You'll just be part of me again." Ven's lips were trembling, but he still managed to smile.

"Can you be strong for the both of us?"

"If you were strong enough to bear it, then I can be too," Ven agreed. "It hurts but I can bear it. I'll accept it, right? I won't repress it. I'll come to terms with it."

Vanitas's entire body was fading, yet he managed to hug Ven. "Yes. Because these memories and I are an important part of who we both are. We can't let the pain define who we are, but we need to come to terms with it. You can't suppress them anymore and I can't fight them anymore. We can only accept them as they are and then let them go. And we can do that, right?"

Ven returned the hug. "Yeah. Yeah we can. We'll survive. I'll share your bad times and you'll share my good times. And we'll encourage each other when we're in pain. And we won't focus on the sadness and pain and fear and all those negative emotions anymore. And we'll be fine. Okay?"

Vanitas nodded. "Yeah." His touch became lighter against Ven's skin as he faded further and further away. "You know what?" the boy made of darkness mumbled.

"What?"

"I don't want to disappear."

Those were his last words.

Ven was suddenly holding nothing.

Tears still streamed from Ven's eyes, and he looked at his hands. He closed his eyes and kept quiet for what felt like centuries.

"Ven?"

Ven's eyes opened. He was in the keyblade graveyard yet again, resting his head in Terra's lap. "Terra?"

"Ven…" Terra mumbled, a wide smile of relief spreading across his face. "Ven you did it."

The boy sat up and shook his head. "We did it. Vanitas and I…" He placed his hands across his heart. "Vanitas…"


	95. Is It Over?

Ven slowly stood up. But he fell forward once he realized that he couldn't put any weight on his left ankle. "FUCK!" he exclaimed. Terra caught him and held him. He looked up at Terra. "Terra…" And he noticed that the color was fading from Terra's face. "Terra?"

"I'm fine," Terra lied. He rose to his feet and supported Ven. "Let's go." He raised his keyblade to open a portal. But he couldn't summon the strength. And he too stumbled.

"Terra?" Ven called out. "Terra!"

"Aqua told me to protect you," he insisted as he once again tried to open a portal. "I swear I'll protect you." But he couldn't open a portal, and he and Ven stumbled to the ground.

"Terra calm down and just rest for a sec. We can't leave without Aqua. Where's Aqua? Aqua? Aqua? AQUA! AQUA!"

As if his voice summoned her, Aqua limped as fast as she could toward her friends. "VEN! TERRA!" Aqua shouted as she embraced them in a group hug. "Are you okay?"

Ven nodded. "Yeah. But what about you?"

"I'll be fine." She stroked his cheek. "I'll be fine…" She turned to Terra. "What happened? Are you alright?"

Terra nodded. "Yeah, just a bit weak."

"Why? What happened?" she released him from the hug. And she realized that there was blood on her hands. His blood. He was bleeding. A lot. "Holy fucking shit you're not okay," she realized. She held her keyblade up and cast, "Heal!" on everyone. But she didn't have that much magic left, so she couldn't help too much. Therefore, she pulled out her cellphone (which was miraculously unharmed) and made a call. "Rio? Hi, sorry to call so late at night, but Ven, Terra and I are pretty badly hurt. Can you come pick us up?"

…

As they waited for help to arrive, Aqua, Terra and Ven held each other tightly. Out of nowhere, Aqua started crying. Like, really, really crying. It was ugly, snot-filled blubbering. She gasped for air, and her whole body trembled.

Ven followed suit, crying out in agony, "What the fuck just happened? Is Master Eraqus really dead?"

That's when Terra joined in, sobbing his heart out. "I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!"

They just cried. All three of them, wept enough to release all of the pent up emotion of the last few days.

They held each other and they cried.

After the trio had shed enough tears for a life time, they sat in silence, leaning against one of the rock-pillars that Xehanort had formed, and staring up at the glittering sky. The stars were in full bloom, sparkling bright enough to make up for the darkness of the new moon.

Silence.

Painfully empty silence.

Ven sat in between Aqua and Terra. Aqua, placed her hands on her lower ribcage, to quell the aching pain building up there. Terra, on the other hand, was listless, his expression vacant, his mind somewhere else. Ven leaned against him. "Terra?" he said.

Terra faced him.

"What the actual fuck Terra?"

An appropriate question. "I don't even know Ven."

"I need a goddamn answer Terra. I need a day-by-fucking-day explanation of what the hell happened to you. Starting from day one. What the hell happened during the Mark of Mastery Exam?"

Aqua interjected, "Oh God, I don't want to talk about that."

"No, he needs to fucking explain."

"I just can't right now," Aqua said. "Let's not do this. He tells me he fucking loves me and kisses me and gets me all excited and then he tries to kill me. What the hell was that?"

Terra shook his head. "I'm sorry Aqua. I was corrupted by the darkness in my heart because I'm a piece of shit. I'm sorry."

"What darkness?!" Aqua exclaimed. "Where the hell did this random fucking darkness come from?"

"It's always been there," he admitted. "But somehow Xehanort managed to open up a channel to it. Then he told me to embrace and follow it and to wall my heart with darkness. Why did I listen to him? That was so fucking dumb."

"I could have told you that!" she yelled. "I could have told you that! I could have done something to prevent all of this! I could have stopped this! Now we're all here and Master Eraqus is dead!"

Ven started crying again. "The Old Man can't be dead! Terra, for real! He can't be, right?"

Terra nodded. "I watched him die. Xehanort used me as a pawn to kill him."

"What?" Ven shouted. "What do you mean?"

"They were fighting," Terra said, "and, and I arrived and I was surprised. I was surprised that Master was fighting Xehanort. And Xehanort begged for help. So I tried to stop the fight. But he used that moment to kill Master Eraqus." He covered his face with his hands. "I'm such a fucking idiot." He rocked back and forth. "I'm such a fucking idiot! But I didn't know what was going on! I was just thinking, whoa, Master's going crazy like how I went crazy. He's going to hurt his friend. He's going to regret it. So I tried to help. I swear I was only trying to help. But I'm so stupid and my heart is easily lead astray. I ended up fucking up everything everywhere I went. I'm such a phenomenal fuck up. And now Master is dead because of me. I'm so sorry guys. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry for being so self-consumed and full of darkness that I nearly cost you guys the same fate."

Ven shook his head, in disbelief. "So Master Eraqus is seriously dead?"

Terra nodded. "I'm sorry."

Ven crawled away. "I'm gonna throw up," he whimpered. He made it a few feet away and then he vomited. He retched for a couple minutes. Then he laid on his back, and mumbled, "I can't think." He grabbed his head. "I don't want to think about any of this. I don't want to think about this." His breathing rate increased. "I don't want to think about this."

"Deep breaths Ven," Aqua said, demonstrating for him.

Ven couldn't take deep breaths. "Master is gone. Master is gone and I almost lost you both too. I don't know what I'd do without you, guys. I don't know what I'd do. I really don't. I was so scared that you'd die, Aqua. Or that Terra would run away. I was so fucking scared. But I wasn't worried about Master! Master wasn't supposed to die! I can't believe this." He panted rapidly. He closed his eyes and placed his hand on his chest. "I'm gonna die next. I'm gonna die. My heart is about to explode."

"It's just a panic attack Ven," Aqua gently said. "Take deep breaths. It'll pass." But he kept hyperventilating. So Aqua turned to Terra, saying, "Terra help him calm down or he'll pass out."

But Terra was already out cold.

"Terra?" She shook him gently and lightly slapped his cheeks. "Terra!"

Luckily Aqua's older brother arrived in a paramedic gummy ship. When it landed, an army of emergency medical technicians emerged. But by that time, Ven had fainted.

…

Ven awoke in a hospital the next day. It was a sunny Wednesday afternoon. He was hooked up to IV fluids, a heart monitor was recording his heart rate, and he was covered in bandages. He laid awake for several minutes, staring at nothing in particular, while being serenaded by the random beeps and dings of the hospital equipment.

 _Who am I?_ He asked himself. _I'm Ventus Johnson. Fifteen years old. I just went through hell and back these past four or five days. But I'm alive. And I'm okay. Right?_

Another voice, one that was definitely not his, replied, **_That's right! And you're not allowed to forget anything this time. No more repressing shit, because I'll always remind you. I swear, if you try that shit again, I'll fucking haunt you._**

Ven sat up with a start. The sudden spike in his heart rate alerted nurses to come check on him. They saw him grab at his head and yell, "Okay, okay, I understand!" The nurses were dreadfully confused, but they were able to coerce him to calm down.

As he continued to lay in his hospital bed, slowly, but surely, Ven's memories—all of Ven's memories—returned to him. The past few day's events were crystal clear… as both Ven and Vanitas. It was really weird remembering the fight that he had with himself (the one where Mickey helped out), from both points of view.

It was also weird remembering the last three years' worth of events from both boy's perspectives. Vanitas had been verbally, physically, and emotionally abused by Xehanort. Meanwhile Ventus had been happy with Aqua and Terra and Master Eraqus.

Speaking of Master Eraqus, Ven remembered all the times he had been rude to the Old Man. And Ven wondered whether he had ever been kind to his Master. He really wished he could go back in time and be nicer to Eraqus. Surely Master knew that Ven didn't hate him, right? Yes. There were times when Ven had told the Old Man how he felt. Eraqus knew that Ven cared about him. The memories of the moments when Master Eraqus had smiled at Ven, spoiled him with affection, or had simply been a source of comfort, Ventus cherished with steadfast love.

Moving even farther back into his childhood, Ven remembered the years he had spent with Xehanort before being split into two hearts. And he remembered his past before that, being neglected by his parents and older brother, and all too often being viciously beaten by his drugged up mother.

He remembered all these things, and they hurt, but they weren't as vivid or real as they felt during his merging with Vanitas. They felt like… memories, for lack of a better word. He could remember them if he chose to do so. If he didn't want to remember them, he simply guided his mind to think about something else. Like how hungry he was. Or how many days of school he had missed. Or how annoying the beeping of that stupid heart monitor was. Or where was Aqua and Terra?

He sat up. How did he even get to this hospital? Was he all alone? Did they abandon him? The last time he was in a hospital, it was when he was eight years old, after the _incident._ Everyone had abandoned him. Was he all alone again? Was he going to be locked away until some creepy old man adopted him for the sake of turning him into some ultimate weapon? Was he destined to repeat the same cycle of suffering over and over again? Was he trapped in hell?

Of course the heart monitor beeped loudly, alerting the nurses that Ven's heart rate had spiked again. This time, they brought him some water and sedatives and tried to calm him. But he wouldn't take the pills. "Where's Aqua? Where's Terra?" he shouted, as he flailed his arms around. "I don't want to be alone! I don't want to be alone! I don't want to be alone!"

He fell into a panic, so they had to hold Ven down and give him an injection to sedate him.

Ven woke up hours later. He was in the same room, hooked up to the same equipment. The late afternoon sun peeked in through the window to the left of his bed. There was a doctor in the room. She wore a long, white coat, and a stethoscope around her neck. She carried a clipboard and referred to it occasionally as she spoke to a young, blonde man, wearing a navy-blue business suit.

"Rio?" Ven mumbled.

"Ven?" replied Rio. "Oh good! You're awake!" He sat beside Ven on the bed and held Ven's hand. "How are you doing little buddy?"

"I'm okay." He sat up. "What's going on?"

"You're at the hospital." Rio ruffled Ven's hair. "I don't know what happened to you three, but you were pretty banged up when I found you."

"Where's Aqua and Terra?"

"Terra's down the hall, and Aqua should be coming out of surgery soon."

"Surgery?!" Ven exclaimed.

The doctor began to speak, "Maybe you shouldn't tell him about—"

But Rio was a chatterbox. "Turns out she had a ruptured spleen. They had to take out part of it."

Ven's heart rate jumped up. "Is she okay?"

"Nurse!" called the doctor, before saying to Ven, "Young man, you really shouldn't excite yourself. You need to stay calm. You're still recovering from acute heart failure."

"Heart failure?" Ven repeated, panicking even more.

A nurse arrived with sedative pills and water. She offered them to Ven. Although his hands where shaking, he managed to take his medicine. And it was great medicine. He immediately felt calmer. The doctor checked his vitals and then said, "Your body has been under a lot of stress recently, no? Otherwise it's completely unusual for an adolescent boy your age to suffer heart failure. Basically, your heart wasn't pumping blood as efficiently as it should have. It could have been due to blood loss, blood alkalosis, stress, hypothermia—or it could have been caused by emotional trauma, a highly overlooked but real cause of heart failure in otherwise healthy people."

Ven, a little out-of-touch with reality due to the medications, simply nodded. He soon fell asleep.

When he awoke, a nurse was checking his heart rate on the monitor. She smiled at him and asked, "How are you feeling?"

"Dazed," he honestly replied.

"Dizzy? We have anti-vertigo medication."

"No, no. No medication." He was still drowsy from those high quality sedatives. He yawned. He looked to his left and right. "Rio? Was Rio here?"

"Um, I'm not sure. We just changed shifts. I'm the night nurse."

"Oh…" He tried to stand up.

"Please don't try to stand up. You still need to rest your ankle, dear."

"My ankle?" Ven looked at his feet and realized that he had a cast on his ankle.

"It's broken."

"Oh. Don't they make potions to heal this kind of stuff?"

"Potions and spells can only do so much. The only thing that'll fix you up any quicker is a sensu bean, and those things are insanely hard to acquire."

"Oh."

"On the bright side, dear, you should be fine in another day. But without potions, injuries like yours could have taken months to heal."

Ven nodded. He laid down. He fell asleep.

…

He was discharged from the hospital that following Thursday evening, alongside Terra and Aqua. All three of them were good as new, so Ven tackled Terra in a hug and shouted, "You're alright!" He then hugged Aqua, nestled his head against Aqua's bosom and said, "I'm so glad you're okay!"

It turns out that the three of them had been treated for their wounds at Radiant Garden First Memorial Hospital. Rio had rushed them there after receiving a call from Aqua. That's what Rio explained to Ven as he, Terra and Aqua ate dinner with Rio at the D'Vitae family mansion in Radiant Garden. Rio had been mortified to see all three of them in such terrible state, but, "Thank God for modern medicine. Pass the potatoes, Aqua."

Aqua passed them to him. She said, "Thank you so much Rio. You really are the world's best Big Brother."

"I know. You're welcome sis."


	96. What Happened?

They spent that Thursday night at the mansion. Aqua, Terra and Ven gathered in one of the many parlors of the mansion, to discuss what needed to be discussed. Ven laid down on a sofa, his hands behind his head, staring upwards at the chandelier above. Terra, sat on an armchair, his expression severe. He leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees, his fingers tightly interlocked, pressing tightly against his mouth. Aqua sat, legs crossed, with perfect posture, on a separate armchair, facing both of them.

Ven started. "So now that I've merged with Vanitas, I know all the things that he knew." He sighed. "And he knew exactly what was happening. He read some of Xehanort's journals. Apparently, this whole thing, all this bullshit, was Xehanort's wildly complex and super-fucking-ridiculous plan to obtain something called Kingdom Hearts, a source of unlimited knowledge and power. To access it, Xehanort needed something called a chi-blade. It's like a keyblade but, like, the ultimate keyblade. To make it, he basically needed human sacrifice. That's why Xehanort adopted me when I was eight years old. His entire fucking plan was to split me into two people, one with a heart of pure light and one with a heart of pure darkness, and have us fight to forge the chi-blade with our bodies. He trained me for four years, but after he split me into myself and Vanitas, he sent me to live with you guys and Master Eraqus. He trained Vanitas himself."

Aqua gasped. Terra cringed.

"Yeah, so that really fucked me up. And I think the damage is irreparable, because I still hear his voice in my head sometimes, so that's something I need to get used to. Anyway, what's worse is that Xehanort feared that his body was getting too old, so he wanted to get a younger body. He wanted yours, Terra. And he knew a spell to do it. But in order to steal your body, you needed to be consumed by darkness. Apparently that's how the spell works for some fucking reason. So that's why he was purposely leading you toward the path of darkness."

Terra shook his head. "And I fell for it like a fool."

"No, Terra, it wasn't completely your fault. This man was insane. He literally planned for almost every possibility and outcome. He had stacks and stacks of notebooks filled with plans."

Aqua asked, "And Vanitas read them all?"

"He read a couple of them, and Xehanort told Vanitas a lot of information, because Vanitas was a huge part of the plan. Vanitas was supposed to fight me and forge the chi-blade. That had been drilled into his mind since he was born. He was also supposed to help Terra succumb to the darkness, and keep Aqua and Master Eraqus at bay. But luckily Vanitas didn't really stick to the plan. He kind of did whatever he wanted. Anyway, Terra, the fact that you were able to resist the darkness and convince Vanitas to merge our hearts rather than form the chi-blade, actually saved us all. Otherwise, some bad shit could have gone down. And Aqua, the fact that you were able to defeat that madman, wow, I really can't explain how much you saved our asses. How much you saved the world, frankly. Because, according to Vanitas, if this plan had failed, Xehanort had tons of other plans in store."

Ven twiddled his thumbs as he continued, "And Vanitas also created the unversed. All the unversed. That was another one of his duties. You see, Vanitas was literally an embodiment of all my repressed emotions and memories. And the pain was too much for him to bear, so he could form those emotions into physical monsters, those unversed. And they all were related to something I had experienced or remembered. He could keep regenerating them because, no matter how many times we fought his emotions, they were still there. In fact, fighting them made him feel worse, so he could create even stronger unversed. Xehanort wanted to separate the three of us so that he could accomplish what he needed, so he sent Vanitas to all these worlds to unleash unversed."

Terra added, "While I was talking to Vanitas, during that battle, he said that he was the personification of a fucked up little boy's worst nightmares, and every day was a living hell—his words, not mine."

Ven nodded. "He suffered a lot." He twiddled his thumbs. "I feel really bad for him. He was all alone, suffering like that… But now we're together again, and I remember everything from my past, and Vanitas's past, so we're going to be alright together."

"Do you remember anything about having an older brother, Ven?" Aqua asked.

"Older brother?" Terra repeated.

Ven nodded. "Notus. Yeah. I remember him now."

"Ven has an older brother?"

Aqua explained, "Yeah. Ven and I went to Olympus to look for you, and we stopped by the coliseum. I joined the tournament to look for you, but Ven had to stay back because he was too young. That's when his older brother, who had been learning keyblade skills in Olympus, found him. He scared Ven so bad that Ven ran off of that world. Anyway, to make a long story short, I was looking for Ven, but I found his brother and Vanitas instead." Until Aqua exhaled. "Are you okay Ven? Like, seriously okay? This is a lot for you."

Ven shrugged. "I'm really scared of being alone again. But as long as I have you both, I think I'll be fine. You two are my family. I don't know what I'd do without you." He hoisted himself to sit up. "Are you two okay? Terra? You okay?"

"I still feel super shitty about how much I made you two worry." He faced Aqua. "And I'm sorry for hurting you. I'm very, very sorry for hurting you Aqua. My heart was weak, and the darkness overwhelmed me. I felt bad about it, and then I felt bad about feeling bad, and I didn't even know what to say to you. I still don't know what to say to you, other than I'm really sorry. I'm so, so, so, so, so, so sorry, Aqua."

"That's all you had to say," she told him. "That's all you ever had to say. I forgive you."

"You seriously forgive me?"

She nodded. "I know you're not a bad guy. I knew that there must have been _something_ wrong that day. In hindsight it makes sense that Master Xehanort had something to do with it. But when you didn't look me in the eyes and apologize, I started to wonder if failing the Mark of Mastery Exam had changed you into someone evil. And then you did all that crazy stuff in those worlds and I doubted you even more." She leaned back in her armchair. "All I needed was to hear you say sorry. And now that you've said it, I want to forgive you and move on."

Terra lowered his head. He kept quiet.

Ven nodded, "Yeah Terra. In all the years I've known you, you've been this super awesome guy that I look up too. So a couple days of you acting crazy won't change my mind about you. Especially since it wasn't your fault."

"But it was my fault," Terra insisted. "Even if Xehanort was manipulating me, I allowed myself to be manipulated."

Aqua shook her head. "It doesn't make sense to say that you allowed him to manipulate you. You didn't ask to be manipulated. You didn't know you were being manipulated. And once you figured it out, you fought against it. So don't blame yourself. You're the victim of his evil plot. We're all victims of Xehanort's crazy plot. But we survived, and we're stronger now. Okay?"

Ven nodded.

Terra sighed. "You're right."

Aqua nodded. "We should all get some sleep," she said. "Tomorrow we'll have to start piecing our lives together." She pulled her wayfinder out of her pocket and clutched it to her heart. "We'll find a way to keep moving foreward."

Terra nodded. He took his wayfinder out of his pocket, and held it up to the light.

Ven reached into his pocket and pulled out his wayfinder.

 ** _I knew you'd want that. That's why I kept it._**

Ven grasped at his head. Yeah, Vanitas's voice in his mind would probably annoy him for the rest of his life.


	97. Grave on the Summit

"Master…" Aqua whispered, her hands clasping over her mouth in horror at Eraqus's lifeless body. The sun was just beginning to rise over the Land of Departure. It was Friday morning. Over the past two and a half days, the skin of Master Eraqus's corpse had grayed, his blood had stained the tile of the courtyard, and his remains had started to stink. Aqua began to regret spending so much time at the hospital. She wished she had come to bury him sooner. "He didn't deserve this," she whispered, squeezing her eyes shut. "Oh my God."

Terra, who had accompanied her for this task, grabbed her in a hug. "Let's honor him the best we can."

Aqua tilted her head backward, as if gravity would prevent the tears from leaking out of her eyes. "I can't do this. I'm going to throw up. That was our Master. He was our Master…"

Covering his teary eyes with his left hand, Terra embraced Aqua just a little tighter with his right.

…

Meanwhile, the sun was rising over the D'Vitae manor in Radiant Garden. Ven was laying on his bed, awake, as he had all night, because he couldn't silence Vanitas's voice in his head. **_Why can't we go to sleep?_** Vanitus kept asking. **_You know, the one thing I was looking forward to was sleep._**

"Shut the fuck up Van!" Ven yelled, wrapping a pillow around his ears. "How am I supposed to sleep when you keep talking to me?"

 ** _Rude. It's not my fault. It's your fault. You should have spent the night with Aqua or Terra. They would have probably let us sleep with them. If I had control of our body, I would have definitely gone to Aqua. I'd cuddle up with her and rest my head on her boobies. Aqua's boobies are the best._**

"Please, just shut up. I'm begging you."

 ** _It's morning now. We might as well get up._**

Groaning, Ventus decided to listen to Vanitas, just to placate him. "I'm getting up. Happy now?" After brushing his teeth and putting on fresh clothes, Ven walked to Aqua's room. He knocked on the door, and when there was no answer, he opened it and entered, saying, "Aqua, Vanitas won't shut up."

She wasn't there. Slightly disappointed, Ven decided to go to the room where Terra was staying. He was missing too.

 ** _Did they abandon us?_** Vanitas asked. ** _Oh no, they abandoned us._**

"No, no," Ven assured him, "they probably just… I don't know, went out." He walked along the corridor. "They wouldn't abandon us. They wouldn't abandon us. They wouldn't." Ven felt like he was reassuring himself more than Vanitas. So he changed the subject, "Hey, Van, do you think we're always going to be like this?"

 ** _Meaning?_**

"Two separate minds in one body?"

 ** _Am I really a separate mind? It's not like I can control what you do. I'm more of a subconscious, right?_**

"But I hear you like you're a person standing next to me, speaking to me. And it's already driving me insane."

 ** _I think you'll get used to it._**

Ven sighed. "I don't think so." He scratched the back of his head. "Maybe I need to merge with you some more. Maybe our hearts aren't one-hundred percent fixed yet. But I don't know what to do next."

 ** _Maybe Xehanort would know. Maybe we should go back to his lair and look in his books._**

"Are you trying to help me?"

 ** _Duh. I want to be able to control our body._**

"I don't think I want you to be able to do that."

"Who are you talking to?" That was an actual voice, and it belonged to Rio. The young man was dressed in a bathrobe, and peeking out of his bedroom door, perhaps because Ven had been standing nearby, talking to himself.

Instead of answering the question, Ven asked one of his own. "Where's Aqua and Terra?"

Following a brief hesitation, Rio answered, "They went to the Land of Departure. To, uh, clean up." Ventus did not reply, but the teen's bleak expression spoke a thousand words. Rio further explained, "They didn't want you to see it. They were trying to protect you, I think."

Ven slowly dropped into a squat, and placed his hands over his head. He felt like he should cry, but his eyes disagreed with him. So he squatted there, in despair, staring at the hardwood flooring beneath him. Rio did not know exactly how to comfort Ven, so he squatted down beside him and gave him a hug.

When Aqua and Terra returned, it was late afternoon. Ven greeted them solemnly. "Hi guys."

"Hi," half-heartedly replied Terra.

Aqua, forlorn, said nothing.

"How'd it go?" Ven dared to ask.

Terra scratched his chin, awkwardly. "We used a restoring spell to fix most of the damage to the palace, but there's still a lot of small things that need to be fixed."

Aqua closed her eyes and nodded her head.

Ven asked, "And Master?"

"He's buried on the summit."

Aqua nodded.

They observed a moment of silence. Ven asked, "I… can I see him?"

…

The three returned to the Land of Departure. It was the first time that all of them had been in that world, at the same time, since the Mark of Mastery Exam debacle. As the sun began to set, and with Terra and Aqua standing behind him, Ven knelt down in front of Master Eraqus's freshly dug grave.

"Hey Old Man," the teenager began, "I know I was kind of rude to you when I first met you, but in my defense, I was going through a lot of traumatic shit that I didn't even remember. I guess I just released all that frustration on you. I hope you can forgive me. And I'd also like to say thanks. You really did your best to raise me, huh? You had no idea what you were doing, but you really tried your best. I appreciate that. You did pretty well." For the first time that day, Ven smiled. "Honestly though, Master, I'll miss you. Thanks for all you've done for me. I know you loved me like your own kid, and I loved you like my own grandpa. Hey, instead of Old Man Eraqus, I'll call you Grandpa Eraqus from now on. Is that okay with you?"

A strong breeze blew. It was a warm, uplifting wind, carrying a few leaves and an earthy scent. It seemed to pat Terra's shoulder. It seemed to squeeze Aqua's hand. And it definitely ruffled Ven's hair. Ven grinned a huge, toothy grin, and a few tears slid down his cheeks. He turned to face Aqua and Terra. "I think Grandpa Eraqus is happy. I think he's really happy that we're all safe."

They nodded, and they knelt down beside Ven and hugged him.


	98. Oh Brother!

Okay, let's backtrack.

Tuesday evening.

The day of the big tournament at Olympus Coliseum. The tournament that Notus Johnson, twenty-one-year-old keyblade-master-in-training, had suddenly abandoned, in order to seek out his younger brother, Ventus.

Fortunately, he had met up with Aqua, a girl who he had met briefly in the past, who gave him crucial information about Ven's life these past few years. Unfortunately, Aqua had attacked Ven (Vanitas) and ran off. Then Ven (Vanitas) had attacked Notus and knocked him out.

When Notus awoke, it was late at night. He was resting in a tent. A little disoriented, it took him a few moments to remember what had happened. He crawled out of the tent, and headed toward a brightly lit bonfire in the middle of the camp. There, he met a red-headed boy, floating around in the air. It was Peter Pan, but Notus didn't know that.

"Hello?" Notus said.

"Hiya," said Pan. "You finally awake?"

"Yeah…" He looked around. "Um… Do you know what happened to a blue-haired girl and a kid that looked like me? But, uh, with black hair?"

"Nope."

"Oh…" Notus rubbed left his arm. Then he shook his head. "Never mind." He summoned his keyblade and tossed it into the air to create a surfboard keyblade glider. With a wave of his hand, he activated his armor, hopped onto his glider and flew away.

Pan, eyes wide, looked to the sparkling firefly fluttering beside him. "Hey Tink, how much pixie dust do you think he needed to do that?"

…

Notus returned to his home, a training ground on an island in the world of Olympus. There he deactivated his armor and entered a small house. Phil the Satyr was waiting there for him, sitting at a table in the kitchen. "Note! Where've you been all day? Why'd you skip out on the tourney?"

Tears gathered at the edges of the young man's eyes, and he shook his head, said nothing, and went to bed, locking the door to his room behind him. Phil, confused, decided not to press further, thinking that Notus would calm down and talk about it in the morning.

Unfortunately, Notus sulked in bed for the next few days. He didn't eat. He barely drank anything. He didn't shower. He didn't speak. He barely moved. By Friday morning, Phil had had enough of it. So he told his other student, Hercules, to kick open the door to Notus's room. Phil marched inside. "Hey kid!" he yelled, shaking Notus until the young man sat up and replied, "Huh?"

"Get your butt up and out into the sunshine."

Notus lowered his head.

"What's gotten into you, kid? What happened to that bright-eyed guy that came begging on his knees, saying, 'You've got to train me Phil! You've got to train me! You're famous for making heroes, and sure you aren't a keyblade master, but I bet there's a million things I can learn from you!' That's what you said to me kid. You told me you wanted to be a hero. You said you wanted to be someone who could stand up for himself, and stand up for justice. That's what you told me kid. So why are you sulking like this?"

Notus whispered, "There's no point anymore."

Phil blinked a few times, because he realized this was serious. "Hey, Herc, go outside and punch some rocks or something," Phil told his other student.

Herc winced. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, go on, get out of here." So Hercules left, and Phil closed the half-broken door. "What do you mean Note? What's going on? And you better talk fast, cuz the stench of this room is gonna knock me out in about five minutes." The satyr pinched his nose.

Notus sighed. "Remember what I told you about my brother and my past? How I wanted to be a hero because I wasn't able to be a hero back then? How I didn't do anything to stop my drugged up mom from beating up on him? How I didn't look out for him when our parents neglected him? How much I regret it? How I wished I could find him? How I felt his heart fading? How I felt that he was two places at once?"

"Yeah."

"Well I found him."

"You kidding me?!"

"No, he was at the tournament. So I spoke to him. And he ran away. So I chased him. And I found him. And I apologized to him. And… and it didn't help. I didn't feel any better. He didn't feel any better. None of us felt any better. And then this crazy blue-haired girl fought him, and I did it again. I didn't jump in to save him until it was too late! And then, and then," Notus choked up. "And then he knocked me out. And when I woke up, he was gone. And I didn't see the point in chasing him anymore. I don't see the point in all of this anymore, Phil."

"Hey, hey, calm down kid. That kind of talk don't help nobody. There's always a light at the end of the tunnel Note. Let's look at that bright side. You saw your brother. Was he alright?"

He shook his head. "He was different. It was like his entire heart was made of darkness. He hated me. He had so much hate for me. It was paralyzing how much he hated me. I wasn't ready for that. It made me realize that no matter what I do, I can never help him heal."

"Nonsense Note. Look, here's what we're going to do. You're going to take a bath, then you're gonna eat and you're gonna get some exercise and build your strength up. Then tomorrow, your gonna set out and find that brother of yours again, because this is what you've been training for. From day one, you told me that you want to make things right by him, and that's what you're going to do."

Notus nodded. "Okay." Some of the brightness returned to his face. "That's what I'll do. Thanks."

…

Flash forward to Saturday morning.

 ** _Is it weird that I don't miss Master Xehanort at all?_** Vanitas asked. Ven, who was holding a paint brush, stopped what he was doing to think about it. "No," he answered. "And don't call him Master. That dude was a psychopathic madman and shall only be addressed as such."

Terra and Aqua, who had been painting the walls of the palace alongside Ven, raised their eyebrows at him. "Who are you talking to?" Terra asked.

"Vanitas," Ven answered, a slight blush on his face. He had meant to tell Aqua and Terra about the severity of the Vanitas situation yesterday, but after visiting Eraqus's grave, Ventus had returned to the D'Vitae manor and cried himself to sleep. Today, he had tagged along with Aqua and Terra to do some cleaning up. Vanitas had been quiet, so Ven had forgotten about him until just now.

"Vanitas?" Terra repeated.

"Yeah, I hear him in my head. I don't think our hearts merged together completely. He's still a separate person in my mind."

 ** _A separate consciousness. Tell them I'm a separate consciousness._**

"He said he's a separate consciousness."

Terra glanced at Aqua. Aqua looked like she didn't know what to do. Ven said, "Vanitas says that the psychopathic madman might have a solution to our problem in his study. We'll go look for it later."

"What does he mean by solution?" asked Terra.

"Probably some books with spells, or a book with information about split hearts."

"I'll come with you."

"Really? Thanks Terra. I'd like that. I think Van and I would freak out if we went to Xehanort's lair alone. Yeah you would, because you still have really bad memories of Xehanort. I mean we both do, I guess, but _my_ memories are from when he adopted me, up until we were split, and your memories are after the splitting. Yeah it is weird because I remember what you remember, but I know the difference between what memories are yours and what are mine."

Terra winced as he realized that Ven could be in some serious psychological trouble. He glanced at Aqua. She was probably thinking the same thing. They spoke about it later, when the three of them were taking a break from the renovation work. Ven was sitting on the courtyard steps, talking to Vanitas. Aqua and Terra were inside the throne room. "Well he's actually in pretty good shape for someone whose heart was literally split into two separate entities," Aqua noted.

Terra nodded. "Ven's a really strong kid. But at a point, he can't keep fighting these battles by himself. He really needs someone to support him."

"He has us. We'll be here for him."

Terra nodded slowly. "But, like, professional help too, you know. He was literally screaming like he was dying when he and Vanitas were merging. He really should get evaluated or something."

"Yeah, that's a good idea."

Ven, meanwhile, was having an in-depth conversation with Vanitas. He stared up at the sky, as he spoke aloud to himself. "So if we completely merge, do you think you'll lose your personality?"

 ** _No, I think I'll still be here, but I think you will stop feeling like I am a separate person._**

"But I feel as if I am the real Ventus, and you aren't. You're just the dark part of Ventus, you know?"

 ** _I never said you were the fake Ventus. I know you're the main component of us, but I'm still an important part. Oh Ven, look up there!_**

"Up where?" Ven said, focusing his attention on something that had caught his eye. Flying in on a surfboard-like Keyblade glider was a young man clad in head-to-toe silver armor. The armored young man landed in the middle of the courtyard. His glider reverted into a keyblade—a simple kingdom key—and he deactivated his armor. Turns out, this young man was none other than…

"Notus!?" Ven shouted.

"Venny!" replied Notus.

"AQUA!" Ven jumped to his feet and backtracked up the stairs. "AQUA! AQUA! AQUA! AQUA! AQUA! AQUA!"

She and Terra raced outside to see what all the fuss was about. "Notus?" Aqua said.

"Who?" asked Terra.

Notus pointed to himself. "I'm Notus. Notus Johnson. I'm Venny's older brother."

Venny hid behind Terra. Aqua asked, "What are you doing here?"

Notus wanted to ask the same thing of her, especially after she attacked the black-haired version of Ven. And that other guy, the brawny brunette whom Venny was using as a human shield seemed familiar, and Notus wanted to ask about him. But Notus didn't want to seem rude. So he answered the question. "Um… um…Well… after what happened last time, I got really discouraged. So I returned to Olympus, but I didn't feel okay about it. I felt like I was running away from the situation again. So today, I finally decided to fix everything once and for all. As much as I can, anyway. I remembered speaking to Aqua about this world and I decided to start my search here."

Aqua glanced to Terra. Terra was dreadfully confused. She then glanced at Ven. He was trembling. His breathing was becoming faster, more shallow. She said, "I understand that you want closure, Notus, but now is not a good time."

"It's not that I want closure. I want to make things right for Ventus." He took a few steps toward the stairs. Ven bolted the opposite direction. "Wait, Ven!" the older brother shouted, taking a few more steps. Aqua jumped in front of him, blocking him with her body. "Hey, um, now's seriously not a good time. What if I call you later?"

He tried to push her aside. "I really want to speak to him—"

Terra got in between Notus and Aqua. With an intimidating look, he said, "Back off." So Notus backed off. "Okay, okay. Maybe I can talk to him later. I just really need to talk to him."

"We'll see." So Terra and Notus exchanged contact information, and Terra sent him away. Aqua exhaled a sigh of relief. "Thanks Terra," she said.

"Of course. I remember you saying Ven had a brother, but can you explain it again?"

"Ven has a big brother, Notus. He lived with that brother before being adopted by Xehanort. Notus and Ven had a rough childhood, and were eventually separated somehow. Notus wants to talk to Ven about it." She sighed. "I think it would be good for Ven to talk about it, but definitely not now. Maybe in a few weeks…"

Terra nodded. "What a jerk. Why would he just randomly show up and demand to see Ven?"

"I don't know." She looked distant, as if thinking about something really concerning.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm going to talk to Ven."

She found him in his room, with the door slightly open, grabbing his head and whispering to himself. She knocked and entered in, "Ven?"

He threw a pillow at her face. Ven shrieked at her, "It was just a fucking doll!"

She backed away. "Um…" She lowered her head. "I'm sorry about that. I knew how much Mizz Piggy meant to you, so seeing Vanitas tear her up made me angry. I didn't know Vanitas was part of you. I'm sorry."

Ven grabbed his head and yelled, "Shut up! It's your fault for ripping the fucking doll!"

Aqua was confused. "Uh?"

"No it's her fault!" Ven yelled at… himself? "I wasn't even going to fight her and then she whooped my ass even though I trusted her not to whoop my ass! Maybe if you'd just told her who you were instead of playing games, she wouldn't have fought you! Why is everything always my fault? It's always my fault that I get hurt, isn't it?! Shut up! Stop screaming!"

Silence.

Aqua called out, "Ven?"

He threw another pillow at her. Then he outstretched his arms. "I need a hug."

She was confused, but regardless, she hugged him. He nestled his head against her chest. "Aqua, I don't want to talk to him."

"You don't have to."

"But I do. I think he can help me fix my heart."


	99. Two for One

Ven entered into Terra's room that night and laid on the bed beside Terra. Ven said, "Remember when I used to spend the night in your room? I can't imagine it now. This bed isn't big enough for the two of us."

"It wasn't big enough for the two of us back then," Terra said, chuckling quietly. "You always ended up sleeping on top of me."

"Really? I must have been so annoying." Ven shook his head. "I'm sorry for being so annoying Terra."

"It's fine. Back then, Aqua said you were going through some stuff, and that I should be more considerate. Knowing what I know now, I would have let you stay with me as often as you wanted, no complaints." He thought about it. "Okay, maybe I'd complain." The two laughed. "So what's up Ven? Why are you in here?"

Ven took a deep breath. "I decided that I want to talk to Notus."

"Oh…" Terra sat up. "Why does that name seem so familiar to me? Anyway, are you sure you want to?"

"Yeah. He knows about my life before I met Xehanort. And I think that talking to him will help me fix my Vanitas problem."

"How?"

"Well, I don't know. Maybe…it's the one last piece of closure we need."

Terra nodded. "Okay."

So Terra scheduled for Notus to meet Ventus.

…

Sunday morning, Ventus and Notus sat in a dining room in the Palace and had tea and cookies. Aqua and Terra, who were nosy, as well as looking out for Ven, joined them. And it was quiet.

Awkwardly quiet.

Notus broke the silence. "Fate is weird, you know. I could have been one of Master Eraqus's students. I tried out for a slot, but in the end, I didn't get it."

Terra pounded the table so hard that everyone's teacups bounced. "That's why I remembered your name! You were the guy Master made clean out his office. And you breathed in the dust and got sick!"

Notus nodded. "Yeah… that was kind of a dick move on his part." He looked around. "Where is that guy now?"

"He's dead," said Ven curtly.

Silence again.

"Oh. Um… Sorry. Um… So… Um, how did you end up here, Venny?"

"Stop calling me that. Call me Ven."

"Okay, Ven. How did you end up here?"

"It's a long story."

"I'm here to listen."

"What's your goal here, Notus?" asked Ven. "What do you want from me?"

"To reconnect, I guess… what's your goal out of all this?"

Ven paused. He sighed. "My heart's broken."

"A broken heart?" Notus closed his eyes and placed a hand on his chest. "I remember having a dream about a boy with a broken heart. He was falling, and he needed someone to help him. So I gave him a piece of mine to help him heal until he got strong enough to find his missing piece." Notus scratched the back of his head. "But it was just a dream." Notus opened his eyes. Ven reached out to touch his older brother's hand. "I don't think it was a dream. I think you saved me."

"Saved you?"

"My heart was split into two, but you helped me survive it." Ven closed his eyes. "And now I need that help again. Can you do that?"

"Um… maybe?" The older brother scratched the back of his head. "Uh…what do you want me to do?"

"I don't know. You're the big brother. Figure it out."

"Geez, um…" He stood up. He summoned his keyblade in his hands. "Maybe this will work." He pointed the blade at Ven. It started to glow. Terra and Aqua began to protest, but they were too late. With a flash of light, Ven and Notus were transported to the Realm of Hearts.

To be clear, their physical bodies were still sitting at the table in the dining room. But they had passed out. Terra nervously looked to Aqua, asking, "Are they okay?"

Aqua nervously replied, "I think so." She placed her hand over her chest. "I think Notus means well. I believe in him."

Terra sighed. He sat down beside Ven and stroked Ven's hair.

…

The Realm of Hearts is a space where hearts reside. It is a quiet, peaceful place, surrounded by a calming nothingness. Each person has a heart the Realm of Hearts, but each heart exists in its own special place, untouchable by others—unless the owner allows interaction.

Ven found himself standing on a pillar of white. Beside him stood Notus, who said, "Oh shit, it worked."

"Ew, why'd you bring him here?" asked Vanitas, who was behind them. Both of them turned around to see him, sitting in his little corner, where the heart was pure black. Vanitas wasn't dressed in armor this time. He wore a simple, black oversized shirt, and black boxers with red hearts printed on them. His hair was a spikey mess and his golden eyes sparkled with anger.

There was a gap between the white circle of Ven's part of the heart, and the dark, jagged chunk where Vanitas resided. Ven said, "So that's why we're still separate."

Vanitas, stood up. He began pacing around his little corner. He antagonized Ven, saying, "You couldn't even finish the damn job Ven. Such a fucking idiot."

"Fuck you, Vanitas," Ven shouted. He marched over toward Vanitas, intending to grab him and shake him. But Ven couldn't. The gap between the sections of their hearts served as an invisible barrier. Ven bumped into it, and literally couldn't get to Van's part of the heart.

Seeing that there was no way for Ven to fight him, Vanitas bent over, and shook his butt. "Come do it then. My ass is ready."

Ven rolled his eyes. Turning to Notus, he said, "I'm gonna go crazy."

Notus said, "I've met that guy before. Who's that?"

"That's Vanitas," Ven answered. "He's the darkness in my heart. It's a long story, but basically he was forcibly removed from my heart and made into a separate entity. Then we merged again. But I guess we can't really become one single Ventus."

"Wow. That's terrible…"

"Yup."

"Damn…" Note slowly walked toward Vanitas's side of the heart. Van stopped shaking his butt, and eyed Notus suspiciously, retreating further back into his dark corner. Carefully, Notus held his hand out toward Vanitas. He was able to cross over the gap as if it wasn't there. So Notus hopped over to Van's part of the heart.

Vanitas kicked Notus in the stomach. "Don't come any closer!"

"Okay, okay," Note backed away, holding his gut. He retreated to Ven's side. He faced his brother and asked, "So, uh, Vanitas wants to be separate forever?"

Van answered, "No! I want to be one, single Ven. But Ven doesn't want to accept me entirely."

Ven argued, "I do want to accept you entirely! I went through the entire process of merging with you!"

"Didn't do a good job."

"You didn't either!" Ven groaned and sat down. "I don't think it's my fault entirely. There must be something we're both holding back."

Van sat down too. "I guess there are some things that we can't agree on. And because of that, we can't be whole again."

"Like what?"

"Like… Hm… Well, there's the fact that I'll never forgive this jerk." Vanitas pointed to Notus.

Notus sighed. "I don't know what else to say but I'm sorry, um, Vanitas. And I'm sorry too, Ventus."

Ven shrugged.

Notus shook his head. "That's not it. Seems like neither of you forgive me. The only difference is that you're angry about it, Vanitas, and Ven would rather not talk about it. That's a normal feeling, I think. To be both angry and want avoid it."

"Then what do you think is the problem?" asked Vanitas.

"Um…" Notus looked to Ven, then Vanitas. "Maybe…" He thought back to that Tuesday afternoon, when he had first met Aqua. She had mentioned that Ven blocked out entire sections of his memories to deal with his trauma. "Are you, um… do you…" Notus grabbed his own left arm, and squeezed it. Notus typically wore long shirts or jackets to cover the scar on it. He hated that scar, and everything it represented. It was something he couldn't come to terms with, but was always there. Whenever he saw it, it seemed to mock him, yell at him, and berate him for the horrible things he did in the past. Therefore, he asked Ven, "Are you still… scarred?"

"Scarred?"

"Like… um…" He decided it was best to take off the jacket he was wearing, and show Ven the deep, long scar running along on his left arm. "Are you still scarred?"

Ven saw it, cringed, and nodded. "Yeah, all over my body. Some of them are just as bad as that one, but most of them are faded."

"Do you remember how you got them?"

Ven bit his bottom lip. He nodded. "Yeah…"

"Vanitas, do you remember?"

Vanitas had turned away, and had pulled his knees to his chest. He was rocking in his little corner. "Of course I do! It was terrible, and I'll never forgive myself for it."

"Forgive yourself?" both Ven and Notus repeated.

"How many times did I never say anything?" Vanitas explained. "About Mom and Dad? About how hungry and lonely and afraid I was? How many times did I push it down and suppress it and pretend it was okay? Even with Xehanort, how many times did I let him do whatever he wanted to me? Then I came here, with Master Eraqus, and I didn't try to figure out my past. I didn't try to help myself. I relied on Aqua and Terra… And now I'm relying on Notus to try to fix me. I really am useless, huh?"

Ven screamed at himself, "That's not true! It's everyone else's fault! Every bad thing that happened to me is everyone else's fault. I'm broken because of everyone else! It's not my fault!"

Vanitas shook his head and insisted. "Every bad thing that's ever happened to me is my fault."

"No it's NOT!"

"Yes it is."

"No it isn't!"

"Yes it is Ven! I'm suffering because of what I did."

"What did I do?"

"The incident."

"The incident?"

Vanitas sighed. He stood up, walked toward the gap, and looked into Ven's eyes. "That must be it. That's the missing piece. You don't want to remember _the incident_. The one that put us in the hospital when we were 8-years old."

"What _incident_?"

Vanitas opened his mouth to speak, but then he closed it. He tapped his forehead. "I… don't remember. I seriously don't remember. All I remember is that there was _an incident_."

"That doesn't make sense! How can you say that I don't want to remember it, when you don't remember it?"

"At least I remember that there was _an_ _incident_ , Ven! Shut up!"

Ventus banged on the invisible barrier blocking him from Vanitas. "You're so annoying!" he shouted. Then he turned to Notus. "What am I talking about?"

Notus winced. "I hate talking about it too."

Vanitas and Ven said in unison, "I need to know. I'll never be whole if I don't know."

Notus sighed. He nervously rubbed his left arm. "Okay. I'll tell you."


	100. Please Remind Me

Notus began to narrate, "Mom and Dad, they were going through tough times— but that's not an excuse for what they did to us. They started using a drug called grystal to make themselves feel better. It was a powerful hallucinogen. That means that it made people see and hear things that weren't there. When Dad took it, he would space out and stare at nothing for hours. But when Mom took it, she would see demons—or at least that's what I assumed, because she would scream and yell at thin air. It was terrifying.

But at first we could manage it, because she wasn't violent. Then the more she used grystal, the more violent she became. But only to you. I think she saw me as an angel and you as the devil when she was high. At first it would be slaps and punches, but then she started using pots and pans and broken plates and even knives. And each time she came down from her hallucinations, she would apologize and cry and try to heal you.

At first I tried to help. I tried to protect you. But then she got me really bad on this arm." He traced the deep scar that ran down the length of his left arm. "It was really bad. I thought I was gonna die. And she refused to take me to the hospital because she was afraid they'd call child protective services. After that, I stopped trying to help. By that time, I was eleven or twelve, and I was in middle school. I did sports, I joined the student council, I joined clubs, I did anything to avoid going home. I also learned to take care of myself. I learned to use my friends to get food, or find money to buy stuff I needed. I also learned to ignore Mom and Dad, especially when they were high.

But you were still a little kid. You couldn't fend for yourself the way I could. And she was really hurting you, but I just… I just ignored it. If I came home and saw Mom beating you, I'd ignore it. At school, I pretended that everything was alright. When teachers would ask about all your bruises and cuts, I'd tell them what Mom told me to say: that you fell off your bike, or that you fell down the stairs, that you got into a car accident… And they believed me. And the worst part is that I started to believe myself. I started to believe that everything was okay, and that life at home wasn't a nightmare. And it worked for me. I was an honor student. I was popular. Everything seemed great. No one would have guessed that our home was so broken.

The day of the incident, I came home later than usual. It was probably 10pm, and Dad was already high, and he was staring out of the window like a madman, mumbling something about all the funny colors. Mom was about to snort some grystal too, but I gave her a nasty look. She seemed really guilty, so she offered me some. I ignored her, so she turned to you and offered you some. I think at first you said no, but then she said she'd buy you candy or something, and she showed you how to do it. I headed to my room. About ten or twenty minutes later, I remember hearing her scream at you, calling you the devil. I was curious, though, because the screams were… _different_ that time. So I peeked my head out of the room. She was hitting you, but this time you were defending yourself. You were defending yourself with your keyblade. That was the day you first summoned it. At least, I had never seen you use it before.

Soon, though, you were starting to fight back, and hurt her. I was too scared to intervene, so I tried to ignore it. I locked my room and covered my ears and tried to block out the sound of her screams until she eventually stopped screaming. Then Dad started screaming. And I blocked out the sound until there was silence. The scary type of silence. So I peeked my head out again. And I saw blood. Everywhere. You were covered in their blood. And you said the most pathetic thing. You said, 'Help me,' before dropped to the floor and started convulsing. So I got really, really scared and I finally called the police. When they arrived, they took me into a police car, but I saw them put you into an ambulance, and I saw them carry out Mom and Dad in body bags. So that's _the incident_ , as far as I remember."

Notus looked at his little brother(s). Ven's eyes were glazed over. His body was statue still, and the boy's gaze was fixed on a faraway object. Vanitas, on the other hand, was staring at his trembling hands, saying, "I killed them…"

Notus kept talking, "After that, the cops took me to a special place for traumatized kids and placed me with a foster family. At first, the social workers dealing with my case wouldn't tell me anything about the situation. Soon enough, I saw the news reporting on the incident. They left out our names, but they mentioned that a kid overdosed on hallucinogens and attacked his parents, murdering them, before collapsing from a massive seizure. I kept harassing the social workers and finally they assured me that you were still alive, but they couldn't tell me what happened to you. I never found out what happened to you. Until now, of course.

Since the day of _the incident_ , I've been trying to find you, because I wanted to apologize for what happened. I shouldn't have kept quiet. I shouldn't have ignored the situation to the point where our parents died. There were so many chances for me to speak up and save you, save us, and I just didn't. And I'm sorry. I'm very, very, very sorry…"

The brothers were quiet for a long while.

Ven eventually broke out of his trance, blinked a few times, and said, "Wow…"

Vanitas had crawled to the corner of his dark spot in the heart, and was cradling himself. "I killed them…" he whimpered. "I went crazy and I killed them."

Notus pleaded with Vanitas, "It's not your fault. It's not. Please don't blame yourself. It wasn't you. It was the drugs. It was the situation. It was beyond your control. It's not your fault. Please don't blame yourself."

Ven placed his hands over his chest. He said, "Notus is right. What's done is done. I can't take it back and I shouldn't punish myself for it." When Ven said that, the gap between their sections of the heart started to glow. Ventus was able to walk over the glowing path, and take a step onto Vanitas' side. He held out his hand. "All I can do now is forgive myself."

Vanitas still cradled himself in his corner. "I don't know if I can."

Ven knelt down and pulled Vanitas into a hug. "Yeah, we can. I forgive us. I forgive me." He hugged Vanitas tightly, and said, "It's okay. We're okay. I'm okay. I'm okay…" He held Vanitas, until Vanitas decided to return the hug. They embraced each other tightly.

Slowly, Vanitas began to fade away into sparkles of light. "Then I forgive myself too," Vanitas said. "I forgive myself, and maybe I can be happy."

Ven told himself, "I will be happy, because I'm allowed to be happy. I'm allowed to be happy, right?"

"I _am_ allowed to be happy," Vanitas realized. He smiled. "Yeah. I'm allowed to be happy. I can be happy."

"Are you happy?"

"…Yeah. Yeah, I'm not empty this time."

Ven touched his forehead against Van's. "You sure?"

"Yeah." He laughed. "It feels good this time. I'm not scared." His body was a light silhouette now. "I can't wait to start over. I'm finally going to be okay. I'm happy."

Those were his last words.

With a final flash of light, Vanitas disappeared.

This time, for certain, for good.

Ven stood up watched as his heart circle began to take color. Beautiful stained-glass designs etched into his heart. In the center were images of his family: Master Eraqus, Aqua, and Terra, and his three closest friends: Hayner, Pence, Olette, surrounding his reconciliation with past: a smiling Vanitas. Laying in a crescent-moon shape at the edge of the circle, was Ven, as he was now, his eyes half-closed, dreaming. And, embarrassingly, he was holding Miss Piggy, his favorite doll. Around the edges was a repeating pattern of wayfinders. It was a beautiful, colorful heart.

But it was still missing something. So Ven turned to his older brother. His lips quivered as he said, "Notus, I forgive you."

"You forgive me?" Notus repeated, stunned.

Ven nodded. "We were both afraid and helpless. It was a bad situation for both of us. You were older, so I understand why you think you should have done something, but at the time, that was how you coped with it, so… well… I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't want to be angry at you for something that was horrific for you too. The bottom line is that we were in a bad situation and I'm not angry that you handled it the way you did. There's no point in harboring anger at this point. It's over."

"Ven…" Notus mumbled.

"I'm serious. I accept your apology. As weird as this sounds, I'm glad that you feel ashamed about it. Thank you for apologizing. But you can't go back and change what you did. We can only move forward. So thank you for allowing me to do that."

"Ven," Notus whimpered. He grabbed Ven in a hug.

That moment, both of the brothers buried the "Vanitas" in their hearts. Of course the painful memories still existed. The hurt didn't simply disappear. But the part of them that couldn't move forward was finally put to rest.


	101. A New Resolution

After Ven's heart was fixed, he and Notus woke up. Aqua and Terra gasped as they sat up and yawned.

"Shit, that was rough," Notus said.

"Yeah," Ven agreed. Hesitantly he added, "Right Vanitas?"

Silence.

Silence.

Silence.

"He's gone!" Ventus cheered. "Finally!"

Notus exhaled. "Good…" He rubbed his left arm. "And, yeah, again, um, I'm sorry."

Ven nodded. And he smiled. "It's okay. I forgive you. I honestly forgive you. So let's move on, alright. In fact, let's start over." He stretched out his hand. "I'm Ventus. Ventus Johnson. But my friends call me Ven."

Notus smiled. He shook Ven's hand. "I'm Notus Johnson. But my friends call me Note."

Aqua and Terra gave the two brothers privacy, so they could talk about their lives.

…

"So I ended up deciding to be a keyblade master," Notus told Ventus. The two were sitting on the floor in the living room. "I wanted to be someone who could protect others. I didn't want to be a coward anymore. And since I've been training with Phil in Olympus, I think I've learned more and more each day how to do that."

Ven replied, "So you've been growing stronger and improving yourself. That's good."

"Really? Thanks." Notus scratched the back of his head. "I really want to be someone you can be proud of."

"Don't worry about me. Be someone you can be proud of. After all it's you who has to live with yourself."

Notus blushed. "You're such a wise kid."

"Blame it on Grandpa Eraqus," Ven said. But saying the old man's name brought tears to his eyes. Ven quickly blinked them back. "So, uh, I've been, kinda, weird you know? Because I was split in half for like, three years. But I'm fine now. And I'm doing pretty well in school. I think I'm joining the student council."

"That's good. It's a lot of extra work but you'll make good friends."

Ven nodded. "I'm only joining because one of my friends begged me. Haha."

"So you plan to… uh, stay here?"

"Yeah."

"Oh."

"?"

"Because I was thinking, maybe you could come back with me, Ven."

"?"

"To Twilight Town. I have a really cool foster family. You could meet them."

Ven laughed awkwardly. "Uh… haha…"

"Unless you don't want to. That's fine… but, uh, you said your Master… um… well if he's not here anymore then… well the other two are his students right? So if he's gone then they'll leave too, right?"

Ven laughed awkwardly as he thought about that reality. As his laughter dwindled, the tears started to well up. Notus quickly changed the subject, "Never mind! Never mind! Uh, um, what are, uh, some of your favorite TV shows?"

Ven wiped his face and blubbered, "Have you ever watched Pete's Adventures in Interspace?"

"No way, I love that show!"

…

It was late in the evening when Notus finally left. He gave Ven a big hug, said, "I love you little bro," and then activated his keyblade armor. With a toss of his keyblade, he summoned his glider and flew away. Ven waved goodbye as Notus disappeared into a portal. His two older friends were by his side.

"So how did it go?" Terra asked.

"It was a little rough," Ven admitted. "It's a little bit difficult to smile at him. But once I get to know him better, it'll be easier, I think."

Terra winced a little. "You don't have to like him, you know."

"What do you mean?"

"Just because he's your brother doesn't mean you have to like him."

Aqua agreed. "Forgiving him and moving on isn't the same as becoming friends with him. You don't have to be best friends with him."

Ven pondered over that idea as he laid in bed that night.

…

By Monday morning, Ven, Aqua and Terra had finished cleaning up the palace at the Land of Departure. They had put a lot of effort into redecorating it, and their hard work really paid off. No one would have guessed that two men had fought a death-match here earlier this week. Ven's bedroom was as good as new. He smiled as he organized his bookshelf just like he liked it.

"Beautiful," he told himself. "There's nothing better than a neat room." And he smiled. But then Notus's words popped into his head.

 _So if he's gone then they'll leave too, right?_

His hands dropped to his side as he thought about the fact that if Aqua and Terra left him, he'd be forced to find somewhere else to live. He obviously couldn't stay in this huge palace by himself. He just couldn't.

Maybe Hayner or Pence or Olette's families would take him in? But that wasn't fair to ask of them!

He could go live with Notus.

But dammit, he still felt very uncomfortable around the guy. Sure Notus was trying really hard to be nice, and Notus was his big brother, but…

Well, as much as he forced himself to like Notus, it was actually that. Forcing himself.

It felt weird.

He felt weird around Notus.

So then what? What was going to happen to Ven?

"Ven?" Ven snapped out of his thoughts and turned around to see Terra wearing an apron. He said, "Ven, I'm about to bake cookies. Wanna help?"

"Triple chocolate chip?"

"Of course."

"Duh, of course I wanna help," Ven answered. For now, he wouldn't think about it. He didn't want to think about the future. He'd rather enjoy an hour or two baking cookies with Terra. Yet as he cut out star-shaped cookies, he couldn't help but worry about what the hell was going to happen to him now.

Master Eraqus wasn't there anymore. Master Eraqus was his legal guardian. Terra and Aqua were Master Eraqus's students. They had NO obligation to care for Ven. And it wasn't fair of him to ask them to do that, right? So, then, Ven could take care of himself, right? Sure he could… Right?

No. No he couldn't. He couldn't be alone again. He couldn't bear it. So then what? What was going to happen?

"Ven?" Terra's deep, strong voice was always a source of comfort to him. He was cutting out cookies in the shape of hearts.

"Huh?"

"You having trouble cutting out the cookies?"

"No." Ven proceeded to cut out a couple of them. Then he casually asked, "So… uh… what's next?"

"We bake them at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about fifteen minutes."

"No, uh, I mean after that. Like, after all this. Like, next week? Next month?"

Terra fell silent. He cut out one more cookie, and sighed. "I don't know."

Ven nodded. "Okay." He cut out another cookie. "I dunno either…"

After they finished cutting the dough, Terra watched the cookies bake in the oven. Meanwhile, Ven went to the livingroom and laid down on the sofa. "I dunno what to do…" he mumbled. "And I don't know who to talk to…" He closed his eyes. He was so tired. All he wanted to do was sleep so he could forget about his anxieties. But right he was on the cusp of falling asleep, someone leaned over into his face.

Aqua asked, "Ven? You awake?"

"Huh?" the boy sat up from his half-sleep stupor.

"Oops, my bad. I didn't mean to wake you up," she said. "I just wanted to let you know that I fixed this." Aqua handed Ven's favorite stuffed toy to him. His eyes immediately lit up. Surprised, Ven blushed, and responded, "What? That stupid thing? I don't need her anymore." He cuddled the doll to his chest. "But, since you put in so much effort to fix her, I might as well keep her."

"Okay." She laughed at him. Ven clutched the doll under his arm, as if it were a duffle bag, jumped up from his seat, and quickly walked away. Once out of Aqua's sight, he clutched Mizz Piggy to his chest, exclaiming, "MIZZ PIGGY! I thought I'd never see you again! I don't know what I was thinking! I'll never throw you away ever again!"

Of course, Aqua could hear his outburst. She smiled. As she turned around to leave, she bumped into Terra, who was walking into the living room. "Oh, Terra," she said. "Are the cookies done?"

"Yeah, they're cooling," he said.

"Cool, I'll let Ven know—"

"Wait, uh, can we talk?"

So the two ended up standing on a balcony overlooking the mountain's edge. The wind was brisk autumn breeze, and it whipped their hair around. Aqua said, "It's a beautiful day." She nudged Terra. "We should all go for a walk. Or do something fun downtown."

Terra nodded. "Yeah."

He was silent. Aqua stared at him. "What's wrong?"

"I… I don't know what to do."

"What do you mean?"

"What am I still doing here?"

Aqua paused because she didn't expect that question. "You're here with us, of course."

"And I should be happy about that, right? But for some reason it really hurts."

"…hurts?"

"I just can't stop thinking about…" Terra trailed off.

"It's okay Terra…"

Silence again. Aqua patiently waited for Terra to speak up again. Meanwhile, Ven had found the triple chocolate chip cookies cooling in the kitchen, and he grabbed three of the star-shaped ones. "Aw man, these are so good," he said as he munched on them. "Terra! The cookies are so good! I think it's the best batch we ever made!" He walked around the floor and didn't see them. "Terra?"

He walked around, shouting, "Terra! Terra! Teeerrraaa!" until he found them on the upstairs balcony. Right before Ven approached them and started bragging about the cookies, he happened to overhear their conversation.

"So what are you planning to do?" Terra asked Aqua.

That question piqued Ven's interest. Ven didn't mean to eavesdrop, but he couldn't force himself to walk away. And he couldn't prevent himself from hiding around the corner and listening in.

Aqua shrugged. "I'm not so sure, but one thing I know is that I'm not leaving Ven. He needs me. And he needs you too. So if you could stay too, that would be great."

"I can't. When I'm here, I think about Master Eraqus. And I feel like shit."

"It wasn't your fault, Terra."

"But I wish I hadn't interrupted the fight…" He sighed.

"Terra…"

"I watched Xehanort stab him. I watched Master die. I just… I can't… be here…"

Aqua didn't know what to say.

"And, anyway, my parents want me to come home and take over the family business."

"Makes sense…"

Terra nodded. "Yeah…" He reached out to touch Aqua's cheek. "I'm sorry."

She clasped her hands on top of his, and whispered, "Terra, please, I want you to stay with me."

He looked away. "Aqua how could you still want me to be here after how badly I treated you?"

She blushed. "Xehanort was manipulating you. It wasn't your fault."

"Yes it was. There was already darkness in my heart, and then I let the emotions overwhelm me instead of seeking help from the person I love. That was wrong."

Aqua's cheeks reddened. "But at the critical moment, you pulled through and made the right decisions that really saved Ven and saved the day. The whole situation could have been really shitty, otherwise, you know? Like really, really shitty. Xehanort could have stolen your body, Ven could have been in a coma, I could have died or been thrown into eternal darkness from which I could not escape…"

"Are you kidding me? You saved the day, Aqua! The way you fought Xehanort without giving into the darkness was unbelievable! I don't think I could have done that. You really do deserve the Mark of Mastery. You're amazing. And that's why I love you."

She smiled. "And I love you too. So stay with us. Please Terra?"

An uncomfortable silence gripped the air as Aqua tightened her grip around his arm. Terra leaned over to kiss the top of her head. "Aqua, I can't stay here. I'm going to leave, but I'm not going to disappear. If you or Ven ever need anything from me, just call me."

"Okay." She avoided looking in his eyes. And she didn't let him go.

Terra looked away.

Silence.

Then Terra said, "I should go speak to Ven."

She took the hint. She eased her grip. "Right…"

Terra turned to walk away.

"Wait."

"Huh?"

She hesitated, her eyes fixed on the ground. She wanted to say: _I can't do this on my own. I need you here to help me with Ven, with the Palace, with everything, because I've never had so much responsibility on my hands. Terra if you really love me you would realize that now is the best time to prove it._ But she didn't say that. Instead, she said, "Ven's gonna be upset, so let him down easy."

"Okay." He walked away.

She sighed as she leaned against the railing of the balcony.

Ven slipped away to his room. Terra knocked on his bedroom door a couple minutes later. "Ven?"

"Yup?" Ven said, faking a smile.

"What's got you so happy?"

"Oh, uh, I ate some of the cookies. They are amazing."

Terra laughed. "Great. Yeah, that's awesome." He sat down beside Ven on the bed. "So, uh, we need to talk." Terra paused and looked into Ven's anxious face. The older boy sighed and said, "I'm probably not going to stay here. I'm thinking of leaving tomorrow."

Ven tensed his body. Through gritted teeth he said, "Oh, cool."

"Ven—"

"No, it's cool."

"I… I'm not… I'm not strong enough to stay…" Terra mumbled.

"Obviously," Ven replied more harshly than he meant to.

Silence.

"I'm sorry Terra. I… I…" Ven didn't really know what to say.

Terra simply nodded, and walked away. As he closed Ven's bedroom door, Ven clutched Mizz Piggy even tighter to his chest.

He didn't leave his room all afternoon.

Around dinner time, Aqua knocked on his door. She peeked her head in. "Terra made omurice." Ven replied with a shrug. So she sat down beside him on the bed. She kept quiet. She kicked her feet. She waited patiently. Finally, Ven spoke up. "Terra said that he's gonna go home." Ven tossed Mizz Piggy up and down in the air. "Are you gonna go home too, Aqua?"

She shook her head. "No. I think I'll stay here with you."

"What if I don't want to stay here?"

"What do you mean?"

"Notus asked me if I wanted to come live with him and his foster family in Twilight Town. I'm thinking about saying yeah."

"Are you telling me this because you really want to go to Twilight Town, or because you feel like you're being a burden?"

He had intended to lie to her, but by the look of suspicious disbelief on Aqua's face, Ven could tell that she wasn't going to fall for it. _She knows me too well._ He thought. _Abort mission._ Ven caught Mizz Piggy and cuddled her to his chest. "A little bit of both," was his slightly-less-than-honest answer. It was more like 0.001 percent genuine interest in living with Notus, and 99.999 percent feeling like a burden. "I want to learn a little more about my big brother."

Aqua raised her eyebrows, as if expecting Ven to keep talking. So he admitted, "But at the same time I don't want to leave the life I have with my friends and school… And as much as I consider you and Terra my family, I don't want you guys to put aside your lives to take care of me. So yeah, I feel like I'm a burden to you two. Now that I think about it, you and Terra never signed up to take care of me. You were just Master Eraqus's students. Master was supposed to take care of me. And now that he's gone…" Ven rolled over and tucked his knees closer to his chest. "I'm just everyone's burden. No one wants me. And it's all my fault."

Aqua stroked his hair. "Nothing that happened to you is your fault, Ven."

It felt so good to hear her say that.

"Listen, Ven, I consider you as family too."

"But I'm not your family, Aqua. I'm Notus's little brother and I should go with him."

"Ventus. Listen to me. Sometimes in life, we need to make choices. They can be poor choices or good choices. They can be choices we're proud of, or choices that we regret. It's hard to make the right choices in life. But we can try our best. My advice is to make a choice based on what you prioritize in my life, and what would make you happy. That's what I did when I decided to stay here with you."

He trembled. "You know what would really make me happy?" Ven rolled over, met her eyes, sat up, and said, "I want to stay here with you. I still really want to become someone who can protect the helpless. I still want to become a keyblade master! Will you be my Master Aqua?"

She nodded. "Of course. I can't imagine anything that would make me happier than to help you chase your dreams."

He hugged her. "Thank you."

She petted his head. "You're welcome."

And so the two went downstairs to enjoy eating dinner together with Terra.


	102. Welcome Back

"Miss Dupree," the homeroom teacher called out. It was the beginning of class on Tuesday morning. Olette, who had been laying her head against her hand, glancing out of the window, was startled out of her daydreams. She stood up and faced the teacher. "Yes Teacher?"

"It seems that Ventus Johnson has been absent since last Monday. Missing over a week of school without any notice isn't good. Please relay that message to him."

Olette resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Why was she getting chewed out for something Ventus did? Was it because she was the class's president? Or perhaps because their teacher knew that she, Hayner, Pence and Ven were best friends? Maybe a bit of both. "Yes Ma'am," she said, sitting down. A couple of her classmates snickered. Whatever. She didn't care if her dumb peers laughed. But it did bother her that Pence and Hayner chuckled.

"That's why I'm not on the student council," Hayner whispered.

Olette stuck her tongue out at him.

During lunch, however, the three of them gathered around to talk about Ven's sudden delinquent behavior. "But for real, where's Ven?" asked Hayner, who paced back and forth beside his desk, holding his bento. His friends shrugged.

"No clue," Pence began. He sat at his desk, eating a sandwich. "It's a little unusual that'd he'd disappear for an entire week, but then again, it's Ven we're talking about."

Olette, holding a riceball in her right hand, leaned on the desk in front of her. "When I called him last Monday, he said he was in another world. He's probably having fun without us." She took a bite of it. "He said he was busy. But he didn't say much else."

Hayner ate some veggies from his bento box. "But he hasn't been answering any of our texts or calls, right? Meaning no one has heard from him since last Monday?"

They solemnly nodded. A tense quiet. Pence tried to ease the air. "What happened to Hayner, who only texts? Remember? You said phone calls are dumb."

"I'm kind of serious though. No one's had contact with Ven since last Monday. That's kind of serious."

"It's probably keyblade training stuff," Pence decided. "He did mention that Aqua and Terra were doing some kind of mastery test. Right?"

Hayner argued, "But there was that day last week when it looked like something crazy was happening up there where Ven lives. It looked like an earthquake hit or something."

Pence insisted, "It's probably part of the test or something."

"But what kind of test takes a whole week?"

Olette added, "I dunno. But Ven will probably tell us all about it when he gets back."

Pence agreed. "Yeah, Ven's always been kind of mysterious. Remember, he didn't even go to school at first. So I'm sure he's fine."

Hayner sighed. "I hope so."

"It's okay," Pence insisted. "Ven is fine."

Olette nodded in agreement. Hayner forced himself to nod.

As lunch was ending, students returned to the classroom and took their seats. Hayner, Pence and Olette had moved onto a different topic of discussion. Pence was showing his friends a funny web video about a quacking penguin on his cellphone, and they were laughing. A duo of girls returned to the classroom and noticed the three of them crowded around Pence's desk. One of the girls remarked, "Look at them, laughing. Do they even care about their missing friend?"

"Probably not," the second replied. They weren't whispering, so Hayner, Pence and Olette heard them say that. Hayner peeked his head up to scowl at them. Olette pinched his cheek and whispered, "Ignore them." She guided him to focus on Pence's phone.

Mean Girl Number Two said to her friend, "If you suddenly stopped coming to school, I'd definitely report you as missing. And I'd be freaking out because I'm not a sociopath."

Hayner looked up again. Olette once again pinched his cheek. Pence pulled up another video, saying, "Look at this idiot. He's at a beach, dancing, while wearing a Santa costume. We should all go to the beach next summer."

Mean Girl Number One lowered her voice slightly. "But for real, did something really happen to Ventus? And they don't care?"

"Ignore them," Olette insisted. But she seemed to be talking to herself rather than Hayner.

Number Two, noticing her friend's actual concern, said, "No, he's probably just skipping school. Or maybe he's sick. I don't know."

"But Teacher seemed really concerned when she mentioned it this morning. She said he's been missing for more than a week _without any notice._ "

"Stop it. You're freaking me out."

Girl One lowered her voice a little more. "I AM kind of freaked out. You know it's those same three, right? Are they cursed or something?"

"What do you mean?"

"In middle school. You know what happened."

"I didn't go to your middle school."

"Their friend was murdered."

SLAP. The palm of Olette's hand connected with Girl One's cheek. She hadn't noticed Olette marching up to her, because she had been too engrossed in her conversation. "Don't you dare!" Olette screamed. "Don't you fucking dare! You don't know how much that hurt! You don't know how many nights I stayed awake wondering, why didn't I walk with Vivi? Why didn't I wait with Vivi? Why didn't I—"

Hayner and Pence pulled her back. "Olette!" they shouted in unison.

"No! This bitch thinks she's freaked out? Fuck you! I'm freaking out! But what do you want me to do? Come to school crying?!"

Hayner pinched Olette's cheek. Pence said, "Olette, it's okay. Ignore them." Her two friends guided her to her seat so she could sit down. She managed to calm down by the time their teacher returned to the classroom.

…

After school, Olette declared, "We're going to Ven's place right now," as she marched out of the building. "We're going to find him, he's going to be okay, and we're going to yell at him for disappearing and making us worry!"

Hayner and Pence couldn't argue. They followed her. They scaled up the mountain in silence. They walked up the courtyard steps, leading to the main entrance. Standing in front of the door, Olette clenched her hand into a fist, and banged on the door. "Hello!"

They waited for a minute.

She banged again. "Hello?" She banged yet again. "Ven! It's us! Olette, Pence and Hayner! Open up!" She kept banging.

The door swung open. And on the other side was none other than Ven. And she accidently banged on his forehead. She jumped back. "My bad!"

"Ow," Ven complained. "Calm down girl! Why are you banging on a door like you don't have sense?"

Hayner threw himself at Ven. "Ven!" he cheered. Pence joined the hug, asking, "Where the hell have you been? We were worried."

Ven stared silently at his three friends with a pained expression on his face.

"Ven?" all three friends said in unison.

"Ven, who's at the door?" asked Aqua, approaching behind Ven. He replied, "My friends from school." To the trio, he said, "Come in. We have triple chocolate chip cookies."

The four friends ate the cookies in the dining room in silence. Ven, a distant look in his eyes, seemed like he was trying to find the appropriate words to explain. At a point, he hit himself on the forehead a few times and groaned.

"You okay?" Pence asked.

"Yeah, yeah I'm…No. I'm not okay. It's been a tough week." He kept quiet again.

They waited.

Finally, he said, "Grandpa Eraqus died."

Ven's friends had met Master Eraqus on several occasions, when they hung out with Ven. They knew how much Ven had loved his Lazy Grandpa.

"Yikes," Pence said.

"Oh damn," Hayner mumbled. "That's terrible."

"Oh my gosh, Ven. That must be so hard for you. I'm sorry," Olette said.

Ven closed his eyes. "And I don't really want to talk about it. I guess I've missed a lot of school and made you guys worried. I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about that," Pence consoled. The four teens sat quietly for about ten minutes. Then Hayner suggested, "We can leave if you want."

Ven blushed. "Sorry. I don't want to kick you out after you came all this way."

"No, no, it's fine," Hayner insisted. He stood up. "Grief is harsh to deal with. Take your time. But we're your friends, so if you need up, just ask."

Olette and Hayner nodded in agreement. Ven nodded too.

So the trio found themselves walking down the mountain. They felt really bad that Ven had been suffering through the grief of losing his grandfather.

But they also felt relieved. At least Ven was okay.


	103. Taking Care Of Business

"Aqua, I need a new cellphone," Ven told her early Wednesday morning as they were eating breakfast together. It was just the two of them living in the palace now, because Terra had left the day before.

"What happened to your old one?" asked Aqua.

Ven had been thinking about that all night, when he first realized that he didn't have his cellphone. He had searched all over his room, and when he didn't find it, he started thinking to the last time he had it. He was certain that he had it up until their visit to Olympus, because he remembered Aqua saying, "I'll call you if I find Terra." Then Ven remembered running away from Notus, and ending up in Neverland, where Peter "the Wicked Fae" Pan basically mugged him. "I think I left it in Neverland," was Ven's reply.

"Oh," Aqua made a worried face. There was no way in hell she was going back there to get it. That place was wild, and it brought back bad memories. "Okay, we can go to the store and get another one." But then she made a face because she realized that up until now, Master Eraqus had been the one providing the money for groceries, paying the utility bills, and financially supporting all of Ven's needs. Now that he was gone… would Aqua have to do all that?

Sure she had a bunch of munny from fighting all those unversed, but that would only last so long…

Anyway, that morning, she and Ven went to the cellphone store. She was more than ready to pay for it, but Ven surprised her by purchasing a new Y-Phone for himself. He insisted, "I got all his money from fighting unversed, and what else am I going to use it on?"

Once equipped with a new cellphone, the duo returned to the Palace. Inspired by Ven's maturity, Aqua took it upon herself to figure out how the hell to be the type of responsible adult that Ven needed. After all, she had to take care of herself and this kid.

Her first step was to register on the Keyblade Master's Guild Website. Before he died, Master Eraqus had sent in Aqua's paperwork, so that she could officially join the professional network of keyblade masters. All that was left for her to do was confirm her registration online. Once she set up her profile, she got access to a marvelous repository of information from the Guild's online archives. And she searched, "What to do when your master dies".

Surprisingly, there were a TON of resources on the subject. She read several articles on the subject, all of which were surprisingly helpful.

[Step 1: Report your master's death to local authorities.]

So Aqua had to call the local police station and request for officers to inspect Eraqus's grave. They weren't the most sympathetic guys on the law enforcement team. They huffed at the makeshift grave, and asked, "How do we know that you didn't kill him?"

"Because I didn't," Aqua curtly replied.

"Then who did?"

"One of his old friends. It was part of an evil plot to obtain ultimate power or whatever."

"And where is that friend?"

"I killed him."

"And do you have a license to kill?"

Actually, she did! Being certified as a keyblade master gave her a license to kill! And she presented that to the officers using the Keyblade Master's Guild Mobile App, which stored a digital copy of her license. The officers looked up her license in their database, and everything was correct.

So they escorted Aqua to the police station, to give her a death certificate for Master Eraqus.

As the secretary lady at the police station checked the computer system to print the certificate, she noticed that, "He had a child under his care. Did the child die too?"

"No, no, he's still alive," Aqua said.

"And where is he?"

"Back at the palace."

"It says he's still a minor. So he'll need a legal guardian."

"I'll be his legal guardian."

So she registered Aqua as Ven's legal guardian. It was as simple as signing a couple of forms. Aqua found it both very convenient and very disturbing that they didn't ask too many questions about it.

[Step 2. Inform the friends and family of your master that he has died.]

Aqua asked Ven to help her write an obituary for Master Eraqus. Ven set to work on it, and said he'd have it ready to submit to the local newspaper by tomorrow morning. And she used that moment to try to talk about it with Ven. "So, um, how are you feeling? You miss him?"

"Duh I miss that old man," Ven admitted. "I really, really miss him." His voice cracked when he said, "I can't even think about him without feeling like shit."

So Aqua hugged him and told Ven that all would be alright. And the two of them visited his grave on the summit to pay respects.

[Step 3. Settle your master's accounts and unfinished business.]

This step was a little trickier. Aqua had to rummage through Eraqus's desk to find important documents pertaining to his finances and business. As she did so, she noticed a foul odor in his office. But she could pinpoint the source of the smell. "What the hell is stinking like that?" she muttered to herself. Anyway, from what she could find, Eraqus had kept all his accounts in a little black notebook. And when she flipped through it, she found out that his personal wealth manager was a guy by the name of Briag Luxu, who worked at Organization 13 Wealth Management and Investment, LLC.

So she visited the firm to talk to the guy about Eraqus's will.

"So sad to hear that he's passed away," said Mr. Luxu. "We hate to lose a client as wonderful as Mr. Eraqus Enix. Such a wonderful, gentle man."

Aqua nodded. "Yeah."

"And you are his… daughter?"

"No, I was his student."

"Student? Hm. Well," he reached into his filing cabinet and pulled out a very fancy piece of paper. "Mr. Enix left a will, which he updated just a year ago. He said that in the event of his death, his estate should be split into four equal parts. One part is to go to charity, specifically The Children's Hospital, The Firefighter's Association, and the Heaven Helps the Kids foster care program. The other three parts are to be distributed among his students: Dreterran Smith, Aquamarine D'Vitae, and Ventus Johnson."

Aqua's eyes widened.

After a discussion full legal jargon, (much of which she didn't understand) Aqua found out that she could claim her "inheritance" from Eraqus as soon as the very next day. Ven, on the other hand, had to wait until he was eighteen years old. Until then, the money would sit in a trust fund. And as for Terra, he could come pick up his share whenever he was ready.

So Aqua returned home and told Ven about it. The boy exclaimed, "I'm entitled to how much?"

"A shit ton of money. Master Eraqus was rich."

"Yet he complained about buying me a cellphone," Ven said, laughing. The laughter gave way into tears as he realized, "He really, really cared about me."

Aqua nodded. "Yeah."

"I wish I could tell him I cared about him."

"He knew Ven. He knew." And she hugged him tightly.

Terra had the exact same reaction when she called and told him later that night. "I'm entitled to how much?" Terra shouted.

Once again, Aqua replied, "A shit ton of money. Master was rich, apparently."

"Yet he complained about buying Ven a cellphone," Terra joked. "Man, that guy…" Terra got real quiet. So Aqua said, "Terra? You still there?"

"Yeah. It's just… I don't even… like what am I supposed to feel? It's my fault that he…"

"It's NOT your fault Terra. Xehanort was the one—"

"Because of my stupidity."

"No. Terra, listen to me. Master wouldn't want you to blame yourself. So please, don't. If Master were here, he'd tell you some dumb story about how he did something dumb when he was younger, and you'd laugh and he'd say something like, 'don't worry about it Terra.'"

Terra chuckled a little. "Yeah. I can imagine that."

"I can't tell you how to feel, but I can tell you the truth. And the truth is that I don't blame you. Ven doesn't blame you. No one blames you. So please don't blame yourself."

"…okay." Terra was hesitant to say that. Aqua knew that it'd take a while before Terra could forgive himself. So she added, "If you ever need to talk, just call me. Okay?"

Terra nodded, and replied, "Of course."

And they said their goodbyes and hung up.

…

As Aqua laid in her bed that night, she felt mixed emotions of sadness, and joy.

Eraqus was gone.

But had left her with the means to take care of Ven. She knew it would be difficult and overwhelming at times to be the kind of master that Ven needed, but she also knew that Eraqus had prepared her for it. "Thank you, Master," she whispered as she fell asleep.


	104. Some Damn Good Pie

Ven was lounging around on the sofa on Thursday afternoon, texting someone. He was laying on his back, and holding his phone up to text. Aqua, who was sitting on the armchair beside him, wanted to ask who it was, but she also wanted to give Ven some space. She had been periodically asking him questions like, "Are you alright?" or "You wanna talk?" all morning, but he would simply respond, "Yeah I'm fine," or "I don't really have anything to say," each time.

It was making her kind of nervous to see Ven quietly tap on his phone. What was he saying? Who was he saying it to? Did he need a hug? People can't give hugs via text. Sure there's a hugging emoji, but it's just not the same. As she wondered what to say, Ven suddenly shouted, "Ow!"

Aqua snapped out of her thoughts. "What?"

"I dropped my phone on my face."

Aqua laughed.

Ven smiled. "It's good to hear you laugh Aqua… You've been really sad."

Aqua raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah. And you look really tired." He seemed kind of ashamed to say this, but he added, "I know you had to do a lot of legal stuff and I should have helped, but I didn't know what to do."

"You helped a lot. You wrote a really good obituary."

"Thanks…"

There was a brief pause.

Then Aqua asked, "Who are you texting?"

"Terra."

"Oh cool. What are you talking about?"

"Uh… well…" He didn't answer. So Aqua asked, "Is everything alright?"

Ven sighed. "Um, not really. But it's fine."

"What's wrong?"

"Well… It's Notus. He keeps asking Terra to give him my number and stuff. I guess he wants to talk to me. But… I don't…"

"And you don't have to."

"Yeah, that's what Terra says. But he's worried that Notus might come back here, and try to talk to me, and I don't know what I'll do if he does."

Aqua assured him, "I'll be here, so we can figure it out."

"Yeah…" Yet Ven pouted.

"Seriously Ven, it'll be okay. Just don't worry about it."

"Okay."

"You still look upset."

"That's because it's like every time we talk, we end up talking about my problems. And then you get worried and you look so stressed out."

"I do?"

"Yeah you look so pale and you haven't been eating, and it's making me nervous."

"Really?"

"Yeah! You've been running around and doing a lot of things, and yeah I understand you have to, but maybe you can just, not worry about me for once?"

Aqua was quite surprised to hear Ven say that. She hadn't noticed any of the stuff Ven said. Yet when she looked in the mirror in her bathroom, she realized that she did look quite worn out. Her eyes were dark and heavy. Her cheeks were sunken, and her had lost its warm glow. "Yikes…" she mumbled. She stared at her reflection and wondered, _What's wrong with me? I thought I was okay. I've been okay._

But even at dinner time the evening, she realized that she wasn't that hungry. In fact, she was forcing herself to eat. And at night, she couldn't get to sleep. At 2am, she was staring at her ceiling, wondering, _Why do I look like shit?_ _I'm fine. I'm handling this situation pretty well. Right? Of course I'm sad. Of course I miss Master Eraqus. But I'm okay. And I'm strong. And I need to be strong. I can't let all this bad stuff break me down. I won't let all this bad stuff break me down. I'm fine._

But she couldn't fall asleep. The night dragged on as 3am rolled by. And then 4am, and then 5am and 6am and 7am. Not a wink of sleep. Aqua sighed. She sat up, grabbed her cell phone, and mumbled to herself, "Rio should be awake by now." And she called her brother.

As usual, he answered with a cheerful, "Hello little sis!" He added, "You're up early."

"Because I couldn't sleep. I've been up all night."

"What's wrong?"

"Ven told me that he's worried about me because I seem stressed out. But I don't feel stressed out. But I look stressed out. So now I am stressed out because I didn't notice how stressed out I was. And I still don't know what's stressing me out."

Rio, who was getting dressed for the day in his bedroom at the D'Vitae Manor, stopped tying his tie and gasped. "I know exactly what's wrong with you Aqua."

"What is it?"

Rio turned to the maids who were standing behind him and said, "Cancel my 8 o'clock meetings. I need to talk to my sister." The maids nodded, and walked away. Rio then loosened his tie, took off his suit jacket and sat on his bed. Then he took a deep breath and asked, "Aqua, do you remember the day Dad died?"

"Of course I remember!" Aqua said, surprised (and a little insulted) that he had asked that question. "What kind of question is that? I even remember the last thing he said to me. Want to know the last thing he said to me, Rio?

"Yeah."

"He said, 'Wow, Aqua this is some damn good pie.'" She burst into laughter. "We were on the Williamsons' yatch for a party, and we were eating this cherry pie with whipped cream on top. He was smiling and happy and so full of life…" Her laughter turning into sobbing. "Then he goes and has a heart attack and dies a couple hours later. What the hell?" She clutched her chest. "For the longest time, I thought that pie was poisoned. I still can't eat pie. I'm scared it'll kill me."

"Really?"

"Honestly, yeah."

"Oh Aqua, it wasn't poisoned!" Rio insisted. "He hadn't been feeling well all day, but he was trying to ignore it because he didn't want to stop the fun. And he didn't realize he was having a heart attack until he collapsed."

Aqua looked up. "May his departed soul rest in peace… But how did you know that?"

"Mom told me. Mom told me that he mentioned to her that he wasn't feeling to well. And she told him maybe it was sea-sickness, and that it'd pass in a little while."

"Oh."

"Yeah. She told me how much she regretted not taking him seriously. But of course she didn't think he was having a heart attack. I told her not to blame herself— but, anyway, that's a different story. I digress. The reason I even mentioned Dad's death is because, well, your master was sort of like a dad to you, I think. At least that's what I felt when you told me about him. So it's like you lost a dad, again. And I don't know if you can deal with that loss, because I don't know if you've healed from losing Dad all those years ago."

Aqua definitely hadn't connected the dots of how her father's death years ago might be having lingering effects on her now. "Of course I miss Dad. And, like I said, I'm literally too scared to eat pie, but I'm not hurting. Maybe I was hurting when I ran away to be a keyblade master. But I'm better now. And, yeah, losing Master Eraqus still really hurts. It hurts, a lot. I still have nightmares of seeing his decaying body and I wish I'd been there to help him in the first place… But it's different than losing Dad, because Dad died of something beyond my control. Master Eraqus… I could have done something. I could have helped… But I'm not angry at myself the way Terra is… so I'm fine…" She trailed off. She didn't know what she was trying to say.

Rio shook his head. "Are you really fine, Aqua?"

She insisted, "I'm okay. I'm strong enough to handle the emotions."

Rio ran his hands through his hair. He wanted to explain this to her as gently as possible. "You know, Mom lost Dad too. And it hurt her so much. When he died, he took a piece of her with him. She completely changed. You noticed that, right?"

"Yeah she became super controlling, and started micro-managing every little bit of our lives."

Rio added, "And she took over the company. Between raising two kids and running a multinational corporation by herself, and on top of that, keeping up this image that she was so strong and perfect, she nearly worked herself to death. But that's what she needed to do to not feel the pain. She needed to do anything to stop herself from feeling the pain."

"What are you trying to say, Rio?" Aqua asked.

"I'm trying to say that maybe you don't need to be fine."

"…I don't… I don't understand."

"Mom was trying to be okay. She was trying to be strong. She was trying to prove to herself that she could do everything she needed to do—and more! And that Dad's death wasn't going to hurt her. But it did. And it still does. And until she sits down and just accepts that pain, she's going to keep repeating the same mistakes. That's what she did when you ran away. She pretended everything was fine. She didn't want to feel hurt that you suddenly disappeared. She didn't want to feel worried or scared. So she kept her head high, and shut off her emotions and convinced herself that she was okay. But she wasn't. And she isn't. But she can't accept that."

Aqua shook her head. "No, but I'm actually fine. I mean, I know I'm still in grief, but I've already cried about it so much. I accept my emotions, Rio."

"Then don't say that you're fine. You're not fine. If Ven can physically see that you're not fine, then don't tell me you're fine."

Aqua's shoulders slumped, because even though she knew he was right, she desperately wanted to argue that she indeed was completely fine. But even as she opened her mouth to argue, she realized that she would prove the point of Rio's argument. Yet she still said, "But I don't want to cry and sit around and sob and be a depressed sack of shit, Rio."

"No, no, no, Aqua, first of all, depression is a real disease. So don't say it like that."

"Ok. My bad."

"Secondly, you can be productive and calm while still being not-okay. For a long time, I wasn't okay. Yet I acknowledged that I wasn't okay. I didn't pretend to be fine. And I was open about it."

Aqua remembered the time a couple years ago when she and Rio had met at McRonald's after she ran away. From the very beginning, Rio was honest with her about how he felt. He had said, "I was really worried about you. Like, really, really worried." Rio was the type of guy who was straightforward with his emotions. He didn't try to act brave or act tough. In fact, he'd be the first person to admit that he's upset or worried or nervous! If he was angry, he'd be angry. If he was sad, he'd be sad. But that didn't stop him from doing what he needed to do to support Aqua or their mother.

"When were you not okay?" Aqua asked, partly to shift the tide of the conversation away from her realization that maybe she wasn't being honest with herself emotionally. But also because she wanted to know.

"It was that year you ran away."

"Oh."

"Yeah, I started seeing a therapist after I found out you had been missing for like, two entire months, and mom didn't tell me. I had a mental breakdown."

Aqua gasped. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, I was a wreck. I was crying and throwing things and screaming at Mom. I even fought her." He sighed. He held out his hand, and a Lady Luck keyblade appeared in it. He waved it around, as if it was a flyswatter. "The one time I've ever used a keyblade in my life was to fight my mother…" He dismissed it. "I still regret that, but therapy helped me come to terms with why I did it. I was angry. I was furious. But not with her. I was angry at the situation, and I was taking out my anger on her. I was angry that Dad died. I was angry that Mom changed for the worse after he died. I was angry that you ran away. I was angry that Mom didn't tell me about it until two entire months later. I was angry that Mom wasn't trying to find you. She kept saying, 'She'll come home! She'll come home!' and…"

Rio slumped his shoulders and sighed as he continued, "When I look back on it, she was really pathetic. She was such a wreck. She was so worried about you and she couldn't handle it. We both knew our family was falling apart. But she dealt with it by getting even more hard-headed. I dealt with it by going to therapy. And I think it saved me, honestly. I don't think I could have survived that year of missing you, and being Mom's only support, if I didn't have a ton of medication and psychotherapy. You can't imagine how it feels to wonder where the hell my little sister is, and if she's okay, and if she's even alive—while at the same time dealing with a mother that is so terrified that I'll run away too, that she literally starts micromanaging every second of my life."

He sighed. "It was horrible Aqua. Mom was so panicked. I could see it in the way she called and texted you obsessively. I knew she was hurting and worried and scared. I knew she was clinging to me because she thought I was all she had left. She made me Vice President of the entire company when I was 21 years old. I hadn't even graduated college, and she suddenly dumped all this pressure on me, and started spending every second by my side. I was freaking out, Aqua. I felt trapped, I felt stressed out, and I felt like I had to be there for her. And then when we finally found you all the way in the Land of Departure, she threw a fit and stopped talking to me. And, you know what, that's what still pisses me off. I nearly sacrificed my sanity to support her, and then she up and fucks off and leaves."

He rolled his eyes. "But heaven knows the second she wants to be back in my life, I'll gladly accept it. 'Tis the curse of being the oldest son."

"I didn't know I did that to you, Rio," Aqua mumbled. "I'm so sorry."

He shrugged. "Well now you know. And I told you because I see so much of Mom in you."

"Really?"

"Really."

Aqua mulled over that statement for a while. Aqua would have sooner compared herself to Xehanort than her own mom. But the more she thought about it, the more she agreed with it. Both were headstrong. Both were stubborn as hell. Both were talented keyblade wielders. But dealt with their pain by running away from it. Her mother decided to run away from the pain of losing her husband by burying herself in work, and controlling her children's lives. Aqua literally ran away from it, to the Land of Departure, to be a keyblade master.

But Aqua earned the Mark of Mastery. And Aqua learned to overcome her pain, rather than ignore it. And Aqua had a big brother who loved her unconditionally. And those were the differences that made Aqua say, "You know what, I'm not okay, Big Bro. I think I'm still really messed up over everything that happened during Hell Week, and I'm super pissed at Terra for leaving me to take care of Ven all by myself. But I'm also worried about Terra. He's been so upset about everything that happened. And I'm also so worried about Ven. I don't know how to help them. But I desperately want to help them because I love them so much. So I want to be strong. I want to be okay. I want to be someone they can lean on. So I don't want to be sad. I just…"

Rio exhaled with relief. "Okay. Let's talk about it."

They spent most of the morning talking about it. And afterwards, Aqua felt much better.


End file.
